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By the A.M.
Costa Rica staff
There are no apologies for poachers and shark finners at Kids Saving The
Rainforest, an organization of young environmentalists.
The youngsters are paying attention to the news and recently put together a
skit based on these environmental topics. It is called "Friend or
Foe."
According to René Peters, a volunteer, "It's more like a melodrama in
which we get the audience involved in booing the villain and applauding the
heroes. Amy Moon, our director, has done an excellent job in preparing
these kids for their roles.
"We don't have a huge budget for such things as props and costumes so we
make do with what we have from home: duct tape and cardboard for the shark's
fin, stuffed animals from the Mono Azul gift shop, etc."
A lad belly surfs on the ground with a duct tape shark fin pasted to his
t-shirt. Soon other young actors, playing the part of Costa Rican fishermen
mug him for his fin and tear it off. As in real life, he is dumped back into
the make-believe ocean without a chance to survive.
A girl then plays a spoiled, little, rich Japanese girl who has her servants
give her shark fin soup.
A villain in a long overcoat opens it to reveal other contraband: stolen
parrots, titi monkeys and other hot merchandise.
The Manuel Antonio-based organization has done many projects to benefit the
titi monkeys in the nearby national park. But Costa
Rica has become a center of shark finning,
thanks in part to lack of enforcement.
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Photo by René Peters
The villain has his wares stashed in his overcoat for
potential buyers.
A recent Sala IV constitutional court decision said that fishermen could no
longer use private docks to unload their cargos. By using public docks the
activities are more obvious, and certain agencies have been instructed to do
more supervision.
Catching sharks still is legal, but the law says they should be brought
ashore with the fin intact. The idea is to use more of the shark for food
instead of just the fin, which is highly prized in Asia.
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