Costa Rica Crocodile
Here are the facts: On average, one person a year dies from a crocodile attack somewhere in Costa Rica. Crocodiles in Costa Rica can be found in estuaries, lagoons, lakes and rivers. Don’t swim in any of these places unless the locals tell you that it’s absolutely OK. Even then, just don’t. Then you will be fine. As a rule, crocodiles don’t care about you, they prefer their regular diet of fish, however, large specimens of up to 12 feet or more will on occasion take large mammals and even people. Costa Rica crocodiles are protected, which has allowed some of these beasts to grow up to as long as 20ft in places like the Corcovado Lagoon. Luckily, we don’t surf there!
Surfers generally should not be too worried about crocodiles. That being said, exercise caution - whatever that means to you. I have spotted crocodiles swimming in the lineups in three places: Santa Rosa National Park (Witch’s Rock), Quepos rivermouth, and Boca Barranca. After a heavy rainfall is when the monsters come out, they swim out of swollen rivermouths, which puts them into some of our best lineups - like Boca Barranca.
Heres what I could find about Crocodile attacks on surfers in Costa Rica: In 2008, a 13-year old surfer named Dakota Kilbride was surfing in a contest at Playa Hermosa and was grabbed, pulled under and thrashed around, then released. He survived and luckily - retained his leg (photo below). There is a river mouth nearby Hermosa Beach where crocodiles hang out regularly, and are known to swim out into the waves. When the locals go scrambling for the beach - Get out! Authorities have issued warnings for Jaco, Hermosa, and Herradura.
The only attack I personally know of was in Quepos, and it had happened about three days before I surfed there on a trip in 1997. A young American surfer was pulled off his board and dragged under briefly before being released. His leg was mangled a bit, but he survived to surf another day. My guide told me this story on the way back to Jaco after surfing at the very same spot. Which had me wondering… (a) why did he take me there? and (b) Why did he bother to tell me at all, if he wasn’t going to give me the option to abort the mission beforehand? I had hopped on another groups surf tour for free, so my guide guy wasn’t even getting any money out of it.
A couple of times now I’ve seen locals (Tico’s) taunting crocs from bridges. They will hook a small fish onto a fishing line and slap the water near the croc, flinging the fish away at the last second as the crocs propel themselves out of the water and snap at the lure. I’ve also seen this with a cooked chicken tied to a rope. I guess you view these creatures differently when you grow up around them.
Sharkwater - Rob Stewart’s Sobering Film about the Shark Fin Trade
The film Sharkwater is a bit of buzz kill for those of us who would like to think of Costa Rica as paradise, where everything lives in peaceful harmony. Nonetheless, I urge you to watch this film so that you can have a better understanding of humanity, nature, and our role as the stewards of this planet. Unfortunately, as the film exposes the horrific shark fishing practice called “finning,” it becomes blatantly obvious that we still have tremendous progress to make a species. The Costa Rica shark finning industry must be stopped before we lose this incredibly important apex predator.
Shark “finning” is a term used to describe the process of catching sharks, removing the fins while the shark is still alive, and then dumping the incapacitated still living body overboard to die. The product? Shark fin soup - a delicacy in Japan. While people chow down, these prehistoric apex predators of the worlds oceans are disappearing at an alarming rate. The balance of an entire ecosystem is threatened as we speak. I’m talking about you and I. Everything will suffer if the sharks are wiped out. Watch the film, I posted a YouTube clip from the Sharkwater movie in another post for you.
Click the image below to buy Sharkwater - Rob Stewart has finally brought the shark fin trade under scrutiny with his award winning film. Get Your Copy of the
Sharkwater DVD and find out more about how Costa Rica fits into the picture.
Sharkwater
I know, I’m the first one to pussy-out when I hear the word shark. But I’m also pretty realistic about the real threat when to comes to sharks. Unfortunately, Its not us who should be scared, It’s the sharks. If surfers have anything real to fear, it’s danger from crocodiles. After heavy rains It’s not uncommon for them to swim out from swollen rivermouths and into our lineups.
I couldn’t find any evidence of shark attacks on Costa Rica’s Pacific side, and only found one story about a man who went missing while swimming in Costa Rica’s Caribbean waters, and whose remains later washed up on shore. The man was 36 year old Jason Cash. This was the only incident I found after a cursory Google search.
Pacific Costa Rican waters are home to over 50 species of sharks. The population is spread out and the truth is: you are a 100 times more likely to be struck by lightning while beating off to internet porn than you are to be bitten by a shark. Since I’m unusually paranoid, when I hear that estimate I always factor in the surfboard silhouette thing that we surfers are known for… so lets say 50 times more likely… Still pretty good odds.
The two most notorious species for attacks on humans - Tiger sharks and Bull sharks - both frequent Costa Rica’s inshore waters. The tiger shark is reputed to be the most dangerous, but this sketchy statistic probably has more to do with the number of fisherman who get bitten while hauling them out of the water, than actual attacks on swimmers and surfers. Reef tips are more common and far less likely to nibble you. I’ve only ever seen one shark on my trips to Costa Rica. I think it was about a 4 or 5 foot reef tip shark, and it was swimming with it’s fin exposed just outside the lineup at Playa Negra. When sharks attack, It’s a widely believed by shark researchers that they are just confused and mistake humans for something else… Oops! Nibbled your toes!
All smart-assing aside, sharks in Costa Rica don’t have it as good as you think they might. It’s not just a smorgisborg of all-you-can-eat surfers. Here’s why: shark fin soup. I’m not kidding. Thousands and thousands of sharks are caught, finned, and rdumped back overboard to die a horrible death. The fins are dried and shipped to Asia where they are a coveted delicacy.
And it gets worse, the industry within Costa Rica is rife with government corruption and mafia involvement. For this reason it has been very difficult to stop this brutal practice. Recently a law was passed to stop the fishermen from dumping the sharks after removing the fins, but not to regulate the fishing itself - just that the fisherman would be required to return to shore with the whole shark, or incur a fine.
If you are interested in finding out more, see if you can get a copy of the Sharkwater documentary, released in 2007, which explains the cruelty of the finning process as well as the urgency of the matter with the sharks becoming extinct. In spite of international pressure, Taiwan has continued to get its fins from Costa Rica’s waters. Here’s a clip from Sharkwater that will make you literally sick:
The other obvious problem the sharks face comes from the sport fishing industry. Think about what you are really doing if this is your game - adding to the possible extinction of the human race you idiot. There’s a reason why these impressive predators are at the top fo the food chain and we will all be sorry if someday they’re gone. I don’t approve of sport fishing for sharks, so you can stop emailing me to ask where the best shark fishing is. In fact, If I had a live shark with me right now, I would throw it at your face… Mr. sport fishing moron guy who emailed me. Or at least i will tell you to go watch the Sharkwater movie. I’m not that tough in real life.
