In the tropical waters off the coast of Costa Rica, silky sharks have been falling prey to longlines for decades. These slender predators, up to three meters long and known as Carcharhinus falciformis, are listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, and their numbers in the Pacific and Indian Oceans are declining markedly.
According to a report by the United Nations Environment Programme, from 2020 to 2024 Costa Rica accounted for 82 percent of the world's direct exports of silky shark products. In a single year, from June 2023 to May 2024, the country exported 734 tonnes of meat worth 1,9 million dollars and 45 tonnes of fins worth five million dollars. According to estimates by the local NGO CREMA, this corresponds to the deaths of at least 45 thousand individuals.
Such volumes have drawn the attention of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. In July, CITES began a review of Costa Rica's fishery: if the country cannot prove that exports do not harm the population, the committee may recommend new measures and, if they are ignored, suspend shipments.
CREMA experts point to systemic problems. Catch quotas, they say, are based not on full scientific assessments but on a percentage of past catches, and are often exceeded. More than 80 percent of the sharks caught in nets have not yet reached sexual maturity, which occurs only at 10–12 years of age. In addition, a discrepancy of hundreds of tonnes of fins is noted between landing and export data.
Officially, silky sharks in Costa Rica are listed among the commercially exploited species whose management has been delegated to the Institute of Fisheries and Aquaculture. However, activists believe the national list of threatened species should prohibit their commercialization. Fishermen claim that the sharks are caught as bycatch while fishing for mahi-mahi and tuna, but Costa Rica's share of world exports casts doubt on the accidental nature of the catch.
Globally, shark and ray populations have halved since 1970 due to overfishing. In the case of silky sharks, whose recovery is slow, further intensive fishing risks leading to a critical decline in numbers in the region.
To preserve the balance of marine ecosystems, Costa Rica needs to move toward strict controls and alternative types of fishing, relying on independent stock data.
