Costa Rica Sportfishing Industry Presents Roadmap for Coastal Communities

Costa Rica’s sport and tourist fishing industry has presented a new strategic roadmap aimed at strengthening coastal economies, improving coordination with public institutions and promoting more sustainable use of the country’s marine resources. The Ruta Estratégica de Pesca Turística y Deportiva de Costa Rica was presented by the Federación Costarricense de Pesca Turística, known as FECOP, with support from the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica through the Central America Regional Security Initiative, or CARSI.

The roadmap is the result of a two-year consultation process that included dialogue sessions, territorial meetings and collective work with communities and fishing-related businesses on both the Caribbean and Pacific coasts. FECOP says the industry attracts more than 150,000 international visitors a year, generates about $520 million for the Costa Rican economy and supports roughly 33,000 jobs connected to coastal value chains.

Those jobs extend beyond boats and captains to hotels, restaurants, marinas, tour operators, repair shops, transport providers and small businesses in fishing communities. The document identifies priorities for better representation, stronger coordination between public agencies, sustainable fishing practices, public-private partnerships and greater participation by coastal communities in decisions that affect marine and coastal development.

For Costa Rica, the announcement places sport fishing within the broader conversation about the blue economy, a term used to describe economic activity tied to oceans and coastal resources when managed with conservation and long-term community benefit in mind.

U.S. Ambassador to Costa Rica Melinda Hildebrand said sport fishing is more than a recreational activity, calling it a source of employment, development and opportunity for thousands of families in coastal communities. She said the United States was proud to support initiatives that promote effective management of marine resources, expand legitimate economic opportunities and help build more resilient coastal communities.

Carlos Andrés Robles, Costa Rica’s Minister of Coasts, Seas and Fisheries, said the country needs to view its seas and coasts as places where fishing, tourism and community well-being can move forward together. “Sport fishing represents a strategic area for the country’s blue economy, with the capacity to generate employment, productive linkages and local development, as long as it is strengthened with governance, data, good practices and participation,” Robles said, according to the release.

FECOP Executive Director Marina Marrari said the roadmap reflects the experience of people who depend directly on the ocean and understand the industry’s challenges firsthand. “This route gathers the experience and vision of those who live from the sea,” Marrari said. “It is the result of listening to coastal communities, operators, crews and strategic allies to build agreements and define concrete actions.”

The process also sought to bring together an industry that has often worked in fragmented ways, with different needs in places such as Guanacaste, Puntarenas, Limón, Quepos, Golfito, Puerto Jiménez and the northern Caribbean.

According to FECOP, earlier stages of the project included interviews, regional focus groups and workshops with people from marinas, charter operations, coastal communities, fishing tourism businesses and conservation organizations. The goal was to build a shared agenda that could be presented to public authorities and used as a reference for future policy discussions.

The roadmap is not a law or regulation. Its importance lies in giving the sport fishing industry a clearer list of priorities and a more organized voice at a time when Costa Rica is weighing how to balance tourism growth, marine conservation and economic opportunity in coastal regions.

Ana Gloria Guzmán, vice minister of Water and Marine Governance at MINAE, said the roadmap shows that it is possible to promote economic opportunities, strengthen local capacity, bring different groups together and protect natural resources at the same time. FECOP’s Damián Martínez-Fernández, director of Conservation and Public Policy and coordinator of the project, said one of the main achievements was showing that public-policy proposals can be built from the territories, not only from central government offices.

For coastal communities, the next test will be whether the roadmap leads to concrete action: better data, clearer rules, stronger representation and more direct benefits for the people whose livelihoods depend on healthy oceans and a stable tourism economy.

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