# Sharks in Costa Rica: what's protected and what's allowed

> All 3 hammerheads and every sawfish are fully protected in Costa Rica, shark finning is banned, and a shark can only be landed with its fins still attached. Other sharks sit in a legal grey zone that courts were still arguing over in 2026, so on a sport fishing charter the answer is simple: every shark goes back, in the water, as fast as possible.

Source: https://sportfishing-costarica.com/sharks-costa-rica-fishing-rules/
Last checked: 2026-11-15
Hammerheads: Scalloped, great and smooth hammerheads can't be caught, kept or sold (Decree 43900-MAG-MINAE, 2023)
Sawfish: Fully protected by Law 10222, a 2022 reform of the fisheries law
Finning: Banned; sharks may only be landed with fins naturally attached (Law 8436, art. 40; Decree 37354)
Other listed sharks: Threshers, silky, makos, whale shark and others are on SINAC's threatened list, but still landed commercially; their status is in court
In parks: No fishing of any kind at Cocos Island, Caño Island, the Bat Islands and other national parks
For anglers: Release every shark in the water; cut the leader close if the hook is deep
Shark nursery: The inner Golfo Dulce, a hammerhead sanctuary since 2018

## The short answer

Costa Rica fully protects its 3 hammerhead sharks and its sawfish. Nobody, commercial or sport, may catch, keep or sell them, and any that bite by accident must be let go at once. Shark finning is banned, and a shark can only be brought ashore with its fins still naturally attached.

Every other shark sits in a legal tug of war. The environment agency, SINAC, lists threshers, silky sharks, makos, the whale shark and several reef sharks as threatened, and the Supreme Court has said threatened sharks are wildlife, yet the fisheries institute still lets longliners land and export some of them. For a visiting angler none of that changes the plan: on a Costa Rican charter, every shark is released. This page goes deeper on the shark section of our [conservation and catch and release guide](/costa-rica-fishing-conservation/), and the wider legal picture is in our [fishing rules guide](/costa-rica-fishing-rules/).

## The sharks that are fully protected

### Hammerheads

Three hammerheads live in Costa Rican waters: the scalloped, the great and the smooth. Executive Decree 43900-MAG-MINAE, published in La Gaceta on 28 February 2023, bans catching them, keeping them on board, transshipping, landing, storing, transporting and selling them or anything made from them. A hammerhead caught by accident has to be released promptly and, if possible, unharmed, and commercial boats must log it with INCOPESCA.

Four months later the Supreme Court's First Chamber went further. In ruling 000912-F-S1-2023 of 21 June 2023 it struck down a 2017 INCOPESCA agreement that had treated hammerheads as a commercial species, declared all 3 to be wildlife in danger of extinction, and handed them back to SINAC. The court said the state must stop their capture, even when it's incidental.

The scalloped hammerhead is listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN. In May 2026 the environment ministry, through SINAC, was designing a scheme to pay fishers who release hammerheads caught by accident. It was still being designed when we checked.

### Sawfish

Sawfish are rays, not sharks, but they're often lumped together and they're even rarer. INCOPESCA set a permanent closed season for the 2 sawfish species of Costa Rica in 2017 (agreement AJDIP/366-2017). Then Congress approved the Sawfish Protection Law in April 2022, and Law 10222, signed on 30 September 2022, added sawfish to article 39 of the fisheries law, alongside whales, dolphins and sea turtles, as animals that can't be caught. The University of Costa Rica says their range here has shrunk by more than 95%.

If you're fishing a Caribbean river or the far north and something with a toothed snout takes the bait, the crew should keep it in the water and cut the line.

### Everything inside a national park

There's no fishing of any kind inside national parks and biological reserves, which covers some of the best shark water in the country: Cocos Island, Caño Island, Manuel Antonio, Marino Ballena and the Bat Islands in Santa Rosa National Park. Our [list of protected areas](/costa-rica-fishing-rules/) has the rest.

## Finning: the rule that applies to every shark

Costa Rica was early to fight finning. Article 40 of the fisheries law, Law 8436 of 2005, allows sharks to be landed only with their fins naturally attached to the body. Decree 37354, signed in October 2012, tightened it:

- Cutting any fin completely off a shark is banned from the moment of capture, by any method.
- Importing fins is banned unless the exporting country certifies they were shipped attached to the body.
- Carrying, transferring or transporting loose fins aboard a boat in Costa Rican waters is banned.
- A boat caught breaking these rules loses its fishing licence, even on a first offence.

![A wildlife inspector sorting a shipment of silky shark fins laid out on a long table](/static/img/shk-fins-inspection-800.webp "Photo: [Wildlife inspector with silky shark fins](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WI_with_Silky_shark_(Carcharhinus_falciformis)_fins_Louisville_USFWS_2025_(54989445137).jpg) by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons")

Article 139 of Law 8436 adds a prison term of 6 months to 2 years for anyone who orders or allows fins to be landed without the body to sell them. None of this is aimed at sport anglers, but it's why you'll never see a reputable charter crew take a fin.

## The grey zone: threshers, silky sharks and the rest

This is where Costa Rica's shark rules get messy, and where the news has been busiest.

SINAC's official list of threatened and endangered species (resolution R-SINAC-CONAC-008-2021, under the Wildlife Conservation Law) includes, according to Tico Times reporting in October 2025, the 3 hammerheads, the 3 threshers (pelagic, bigeye and common), the whale shark, the whitetip reef shark, the silky shark, the grey reef shark, the oceanic whitetip and both makos. Under that list, sharks caught as bycatch are meant to go back alive. But since 2017, government decrees moved several of these species under INCOPESCA as commercial fish, and the longline fleet still lands them. Its federation told the Tico Times in 2025 that sharks make up about 40% of its yearly catch, while insisting they aren't the target.

::: triptych "Sharks of Costa Rica's waters"
![A heavy-bodied bull shark with a blunt snout swimming over sand in clear water](/static/img/shk-bull-shark-800.webp "Photo: [Bull shark](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Requin_bouledogue_(Carcharhinus_leucas)_(Ifremer_00813-92510_-_53590).jpg) by Jerome Paillet (IFREMER), CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons")
![Whitetip reef sharks hunting over the rocks at night at Cocos Island](/static/img/shk-whitetips-cocos-night-800.webp "Photo: [Whitetip reef sharks at Cocos Island](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Whitetip_Reef_Sharks_Triaenodon_Obesus_(226577029).jpeg) by Kris Mikael Krister, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons")
![A whale shark with a broad flat head and a dark grey back covered in rows of white spots gliding through clear blue water](/static/img/shk-whale-shark-800.webp)
:::

| Shark | Where it stands in 2026 |
|---|---|
| Scalloped, great and smooth hammerheads | Fully protected: no capture, keeping or sale (decree of 2023, Supreme Court ruling of 2023) |
| Sawfish (both species) | Fully protected by law (Law 10222, 2022) |
| Whale shark | On SINAC's threatened list; not a fishery target |
| Pelagic, bigeye and common threshers | On SINAC's list; moved to CMS Appendix I in 2026; exports challenged in court |
| Silky shark | On SINAC's list and CITES Appendix II; still landed and exported in large numbers |
| Shortfin and longfin mako, oceanic whitetip, grey reef, whitetip reef | On SINAC's list; status disputed between SINAC and INCOPESCA |
| Other sharks | May be landed commercially, fins attached |

### The court cases

- **September 2025.** At the request of environmental lawyer Walter Brenes, the Contentious Administrative Tribunal ordered an immediate halt to exports of silky sharks, grey reef sharks and the 3 threshers. A month later it lifted the order after hearing from the state and INCOPESCA.
- **March to July 2026.** The 3 threshers were moved to Appendix I of the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) at its meeting in Brazil in March, binding from 27 June 2026. In July, Brenes asked the court to stop thresher exports again; MINAE said it was still analysing the change. The court hadn't ruled when we checked.
- **July 2026.** The CITES Animals Committee looked at whether to review Costa Rica's silky shark trade, after a report by the Costa Rican group CREMA found the country supplies about 82% of the world's silky shark product exports.

### The bill in Congress

Bill 24,496 would write into the Wildlife Conservation Law that any shark the IUCN lists as threatened, or that appears on a CITES appendix, is protected wildlife. The environment committee approved it on 7 February 2026 and sent it to the full Assembly. An identical bill was shelved in 2023. We couldn't find a final vote, so treat it as a bill, not a law.

## What this means on a charter

Here's the plain version for anyone booking a boat.

![A small unmarked white fishing boat far off on calm deep blue sea at dawn](/static/img/shk-small-boat-dawn-800.webp)

- **Every shark goes back.** Costa Rican crews release sharks as a matter of course, and with a protected species you have no choice. The sport fishing rules allow 5 fish to be landed per trip, but a shark shouldn't be one of them. Ask for a dorado or a tuna instead.
- **Don't target sharks.** Charter crews here don't sell shark trips, and setting out to catch a threatened species puts both you and the crew on the wrong side of a fight that's being argued in the courts.
- **Never fish inside a park.** The best shark spots, Cocos, Caño and the Bat Islands, are no-take water. Divers go there to see sharks; boats don't fish there.
- **Never buy shark fin.** If a market or restaurant offers fin, skip it.
- **Report what looks wrong.** Loose fins on a boat, longlines inside a gulf or nets in a park can be reported to INCOPESCA or SINAC. A time, a position and a photo help most.

## Where you'll meet sharks

### Cocos Island

[Cocos Island](/cocos-island-costa-rica/), more than 300 miles offshore, is famous for schools of scalloped hammerheads and big numbers of whitetip reef sharks. It's a national park, so it's for divers on liveaboards, not anglers. The no-take park was enlarged about 27-fold in 2021.

### The Golfo Dulce nursery

The inner [Golfo Dulce](/golfo-dulce-fishing/), in the far south, is where baby scalloped hammerheads grow up. In May 2018 the government and MINAE declared a hammerhead sanctuary around the wetlands near the Río Coto mouth, an area the group Misión Tiburón had identified as a breeding site. A 2019 study that tracked young hammerheads with acoustic tags found they stay in the gulf for months, use it year after year, and connect to adult habitat offshore. The authors called it critical habitat for the species in the eastern Pacific.

If you fish the inner gulf for snapper or roosterfish and hook a small hammerhead, it's almost certainly one of these juveniles. Get it back fast.

### Rivers and river mouths

![A brown jungle river meeting the surf at a beach, with dense broadleaf rainforest and palms on both banks](/static/img/shk-river-mouth-800.webp)

Bull sharks tolerate fresh water and run up rivers on both coasts. Our [Caño Negro and Río Frío guide](/cano-negro-rio-frio-fishing/) notes they're known to come up from the sea there, and Caribbean river mouths see them too. They're strong and short-tempered on a line, so leave the handling to the crew.

### Offshore

On the Pacific grounds, a shark can grab a bait meant for tuna or dorado, or take a hooked fish on the way up. Our [species guide](/costa-rica-fish-species-guide/) covers the fish crews do target.

## How to release a shark

Most of this is the mate's job, but knowing it helps you spot a good crew. The advice below comes from NOAA's shark release guidance, the IGFA's release guidelines and the research on shark stress.

![A pair of heavy stainless steel cable cutters lying beside a coiled wire leader with a circle hook on a wet white boat deck](/static/img/shk-cable-cutters-800.webp)

1. **Use tackle that ends the fight fast.** A long fight is what kills. NOAA's guidance is to use heavy enough gear to keep the fight short.
2. **Keep it in the water.** Don't lift a shark aboard, don't drag it onto a beach and never lift one by the tail. Out of the water its own weight can injure its organs.
3. **Use circle hooks with bait.** They're already required in Costa Rica with natural bait for billfish, and they help sharks too by hooking the jaw instead of the gut.
4. **Dehook with a tool, or cut the leader.** A long-handled dehooker keeps hands away from teeth. If the hook is deep or getting it out would be risky, cut the leader as close to the hook as you safely can. The IGFA says not to break or "pop" the line, which can tear the fish.
5. **No gaffs, no ropes round the tail.** INCOPESCA already bans gaffs on billfish, and the same thinking applies.
6. **Hammerheads need extra speed.** A 2014 study of 5 shark species found hammerheads were the most stressed by capture and the most prone to dying later, even when they swam off looking fine. With a hammerhead, skip the photo and cut it loose.
7. **Log it.** Note the species, rough size, position and time. Researchers and SINAC's planned hammerhead scheme both rely on that kind of record.

Our step-by-step [billfish release guide](/how-to-release-a-billfish/) covers the same skills on sailfish and marlin, and our [techniques guide](/costa-rica-fishing-techniques/) explains circle hooks.

## Frequently asked questions

### Can you fish for sharks in Costa Rica?

Not in any way a visitor should. Hammerheads and sawfish are fully protected, many other sharks are on SINAC's threatened list, and no fishing at all is allowed in the national parks where sharks gather. Charter crews release any shark they hook.

### Is it illegal to catch a hammerhead shark in Costa Rica?

Yes. Since February 2023 catching, keeping, landing and selling any of the 3 hammerhead species is banned, and one caught by accident must be released at once.

### Is shark finning legal in Costa Rica?

No. Sharks can only be landed with their fins naturally attached, cutting fins off at sea is banned, and boats caught carrying loose fins lose their licence. Landing fins without the body to sell them can bring a prison term.

### Why are sharks still exported from Costa Rica?

Because the longline fleet is still allowed to land some species, such as the silky shark, as commercial fish. Environmental lawyers and groups have challenged that in court and at CITES, and a bill to protect all threatened sharks by law was before Congress in 2026.

### What should I do if I catch a shark on a charter?

Let the crew handle it. It should stay in the water, the hook should come out with a dehooker or the leader be cut close, and it should be released as fast as possible. Don't ask for a lift-out photo.

### Where can I see sharks safely in Costa Rica?

Dive or snorkel trips to Cocos Island, Caño Island and the Bat Islands are the classic options. They're all no-take parks, so the sharks are protected there. Our [scuba diving guide](/scuba-diving-in-costa-rica/) has more.