Environmental groups this week demanded an investigation into another Taiwanese fishing vessel suspected of unloading shark fins on a private dock in the Pacific port town of Puntarenas.

Environmental watchdog group MarViva on Tuesday alerted Coast Guard officials and the Puntarenas Prosecutors' office to a boat it believed was unloading shark fins without the carcasses attached, as required by Costa Rican Fishing Institute (INCOPESCA) regulations.

Shark fins are in high demand in mainly Asian markets and have led to large-scale slaughter of eastern Pacific shark populations. In Costa Rica, fins are sold for approximately $65/kg. Environmentalists fear that unchecked, the practice could deplete Pacific shark populations in the next 10 years.

If approved, a current bill before the Legislative Assembly would punish the landing and trading of fins without the carcass attached with stiff fines and up to two years imprisonment.

According to a MarViva spokes-woman, crew members aboard the Ho Tsai Fa No. 18 began unloading its cargo at approximately 5 p.m. onto the private dock Permata, one of scores that line the northern coast of Puntarenas.

According to the ship's General Declaration, a document submitted by a private agency to the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, the Ho Tsai Fa was cleared to arrive in Caldera Port at 11 a.m. on July 29, carrying 60,000-kg of whole shark.

The report was presented by the private agency Aduamar, S.A. and signed by Caldera Port official Marco Castro, Adua-mar, S.A. agent Luis Roberto Rodríguez, and officials from Immigration, the Mi-nistry of Agriculture's (MAG) Quarantine Division and Port Authority (INCOP), whose signatures are illegible.

INCOPESCA inspectors are required to be present during the unloading of cargo, but officials say the institution lacks the necessary personnel to comply.

MarViva spokeswoman Marcela Vargas said members of the environmental group began filming the ship's crew as they started to unload "tuna and other species." Later, the tape was presented to Prosecutor Wilberth Jiménez.

However, Jiménez said the tape showed no evidence that any irregularities had been committed. Jiménez said that after speaking with an INCOPESCA official, he determined there was no need to inspect the dock.

But Coast Guard official Manuel Silva, who inspected the dock with other Coast Guard officials, said he saw approximately 30 sacks of unattached fins he believes had been unloaded from the ship, because the fins were fresh. Each sack contained approximately 50 kg of fins, he said.

"(Dock workers) tried to hide approximately 30 sacks of fresh fins," he told The Tico Times. "We entered the dock by force." Silva said he took photos.

INCOPESCA official Ana Salas arrived immediately after the Coast Guard was notified, he said.

"(Salas) said that everything was fine and that we should leave," Silva said.

No inspectors from INCOPESCA, MAG or Customs were present, as normal oversight practices would dictate, according to Silva.

Salas later denied she ordered Coast Guard officials off the case on Wednesday, saying, "It is totally false."

"A report has been prepared for (INCOPESCA President) Ligia (Castro), and if she wants, she can divulge it," Salas said. However, she admitted that she had told Prosecutor Jiménez, "We haven't seen anything irregular."

According to Jiménez, Salas said the fins Coast Guard official Silva observed were part of a load "Salas authorized a few days ago, and were just being moved from one container to the other."

Castro did not return a phone message left on Wednesday with a secretary, who said the INCOPESCA official was in a meeting.

"We don't know yet if there was anything irregular about the landing," said MarViva Director Michael Rothschild. "But the situation in Puntarenas points to numerous anomalies, and we think it should be fully investigated."

Irregularities committed during the landing of shark fins by foreign vessels on private Puntarenas docks first came to light after Coast Guard officials discovered the Taiwanese vessel Goida U Ruey landing 30 tons of undeclared and unattached shark fins on the private dock Inversiones Cruz.

Subsequent investigations by The Tico Times and environmental groups, including the Costa Rican Sea Turtle Restoration Project (PRETOMA), YISKI, APREFLOFAS and MarViva, revealed a chaotic situation with little oversight over foreign fishing vessels landing products in Puntarenas (TT, June 13, July 11, 18, 25).

Puntarenas prosecutors are already investigating the fate of the 30 tons of disappeared shark fins, after environmentalist María Elena Fournier last month filed a criminal complaint with the Judicial Investigative Police (OIJ) to determine how the fins disappeared, whether tax evasion was committed, and if so, who is responsible.

On Wednesday, PRETOMA President Randall Arauz, APREFLOFAS Director Luis Diego Marín and the Association Justice for Nature filed another criminal complaint with Customs Director Fran-cisco Fonseca, Finance Minister Alberto Dent and Juan Carlos Aguilar, coordinator of Costa Rica's tax enforcement bureau.

The complaint "denounces serious anomalies regarding the unloading of fishing products by foreign vessels, in particular shark fins, that aside from the environmental damage it causes the country and every Costa Rican, represents multi-million-dollar tax fraud," according to a copy of the text given to The Tico Times.

Five different government agencies and one private company are mentioned in the complaint.

Article 213 of the Fiscal Code states that any cargo unloaded on private docks or during unusual hours should be considered contraband, according to the complaint. Also according to the complaint, Article 71 states that "the unloading of any type of merchandise from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. is prohibited."

The Goida U Ruey unloaded its cargo at 9 p.m., according to a Coast Guard report.

"Despite the irregularities reported to the proper authorities, government officials have done nothing to confiscate the presumed contraband, and in fact permitted the (Goida U Ruey) to disembark seven days after the presumed illegal unloading," the complaint concludes.

The complaint calls on Customs officials to prevent similar cases by seizing products that are not accurately declared on official documents.