Beamer was a blue shark that used to enjoy swimming in the chilly waters off Montauk, New York. Last year, Beamer began swimming south towards the Caribbean and made it to the eastern Antilles by Christmas. The shark then made a straight swim towards Puerto Limon in Costa Rica; alas, Beamer ended up hooked on the lines of a commercial fishing boat somewhere between Portete and Moin. The demise of Beamer was confirmed by Randall Arauz of PRETOMA, an organization dedicated to the conservation of marine ecosystems in Costa Rica. Beamer was part of a research project conducted by… Continue reading →
Beamer was a blue shark that used to enjoy swimming in the chilly waters off Montauk, New York. Last year, Beamer began swimming south towards the Caribbean and made it to the eastern Antilles by Christmas. The shark then made a straight swim towards Puerto Limon in Costa Rica; alas, Beamer ended up hooked on the lines of a commercial fishing boat somewhere between Portete and Moin.
The demise of Beamer was confirmed by Randall Arauz of PRETOMA, an organization dedicated to the conservation of marine ecosystems in Costa Rica. Beamer was part of a research project conducted by Ocearch, an organization dedicated to marine biology and oceanography that fits sharks with electronic tracking devices. The work of Ocearch has been previously featured by The Costa Rica Star.
Ocearch reported that Beamer was caught by one of more than 3,500 lines cast by a commercial fishing boat in a 60 miles radius. Mr. Arauz of PRETOMA confirmed this information and visited the fishing crew to retrieve the electronic device Beamer had been tagged with.
Speaking to online news daily CRHoy, Mr. Arauz explained that:
[Ocearh] contacted me three weeks ago when they noticed that the shark’s electronic tracking showed a straight line towards Puerto Limon after swimming around in the Caribbean. So this tag was monitored by GPS, which in this case had a positional accuracy between 400 meters and 2 kilometers. We found one of the fishermen and he gave us [Beamer´s] tag.
The reality is that [Beamer] was caught for commercial purposes. We (PRETOMA) tagged a shark in Cocos Island in 2008 and three weeks later we saw the abrupt track towards Puntarenas. They did not want to return our tag, at least the crew from Limon was very helpful in this regard.
The investigation by Mr. Arauz into this matter does not suggest shark finning, an illegal practice that is nonetheless a reality in Costa Rica. Shark fishing per se is not illegal; it is very likely that Beamer ended up gutted and sliced into bolillo filets, which are widely sold in fish and seafood shops in Costa Rica. Many people who buy bolillo (also known as cazon or posta) do not know it comes from shark. You can find a description of what Beamer tasted like in this previous article about sharks.