Response to the question of Judge Tomka on the Report submitted on 30 April2017 by the
experts appointed by the Court
The text of a question asked by Judge T omka on our Report was transmitled to us by a letter of
the Registrar dated 12 June 2017. ln this document, we provide an answer to the question:
Text and question by Judge Tom ka
Could the Experts provide information, based on their observations during the two site visits
(December 2016 and March 2017), on whether they saw, in the close vicinity of the Caribbean
Sea coast, any continuous water channel connecting the San Juan River and Harbor Head
Lageon.
ln their Report (para. 106), the Experts refer to a series of discontinuous coast-parallellagoons".
They include photos which appear to show various water features near the Caribbean Coast (see
Figures 41 and 42). The attention of the Experts is also drawn to paragraph 4.9 of the CounterMemorial
of the Republic of Nicaragua, dates 18 April2017, submitted in the Dispute conceming
the Land Boundary in the Northem Part of Isla Parti/los case, in which Nicaragua asserts the "the
channel connecting the lower San Juan with Harbor Head Lageon still exists today".
Response
Based on the observations made during ourtwo site visits (December 2016 and March 2017), we
can assert that at the present time there isn't any continuous water channel connecting the San
Juan River and Harbor Head Lageon in the close vicinity of the Caribbean Coast. As we indicate
in the report, "topographie maps produced by Costa Rica and Nicaragua show that in the recent
past there used to be a channel-like water gap between the spit and firm land, and that the Los
Portillos/Harbour Head lageon was connected to the sea via the San Juan River" (see paragraph
100 and figure 26 of the Report). The observations carried out during our site visits
unambiguously revealed that such water gap or continuous channel has disappeared due to
coastal recession, and that nowadays Los Portillos/Harbor Head Lageon is a water body
commonly enclosed by a sand barrier (see figures 18, 21, 33 of the Report). As we indicate in the
Report, in the coastal stretch of Isla Portillos, between the beach and the area covered by tree
vegetation, the re is a series of discontinuous coast-parallel lagoons th at are remnants of the
channel-like water gap that used to exist in recent times between Isla Portillos and the spit of Los
Portillos/Harbor Head Lageon (see paragraph 106 and figures 41 and 42 of the Report).
* *
*
Prof. Eric Fouache Prof. Francisco Gutiérrez
Response of the experts to Judge Tomka’s question