The case started in 2011, when a boat belonging to the case’s defendant, Taiwanese-Costa Rican Kathy Tseng Chang, docked in Puntarenas, on Costa Rica's central Pacific coast. Fishermen on Tseng’s boat had allegedly carved out all of the meat, bones and innards of 36 sharks, leaving only the spinal column with the fins attached by strips of skin.
A new campaign hopes to pressure a move by President Laura Chinchilla to fire the board of directors of the Costa Rican Fisheries Institute, which is loaded with fishing industry insiders.