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A12 WORLD NEWS
Friday 28 december 2018

Lobster divers risk injury, death in Honduras

By RODRIGO ABD sions in such high-pressure,
MOISES CASTILLO oxygen-rich chambers, but
Associated Press there are only a few avail-
PUERTO LEMPIRA, Honduras able along the coast, and
(AP) — Saul Ronaldo Atilia- divers often must wait sev-
no was diving for lobster in eral days before they can
the clear waters off Hondu- be treated — reducing the
ras’ Caribbean coast when chances of recovery.
he felt a pressure, a pain “It’s the first accident I’ve
in his body. And he knew had,” Atiliano said, speak-
he’d gotten the sickness ing in Miskito through a
that has killed or disabled translator. He appeared ex-
so many of his Miskito com- hausted, with a blank stare,
rades. after a session of more than
“The pressure attacked three hours in the chamber.
me deep in the water,” He had shown little out-
said Atiliano, a 45-year-old ward sign of improvement
Miskito who for 25 years has after that early treatment.
dived for lobster, most of Another patient at the
which winds up is exported chamber was Charles
to the United States. “Charly” Melendez, a
Thousands of men across 28-year-old Miskito who
the Mosquitia region of said he been diving since
Honduras and Nicaragua In this Sept. 9, 2018 photo, a diver holds onto his catch of lobsters during a fishing journey in the he was 16 and had harvest-
depend on lobster fishing Miskito coast near Cay Savannah, Honduras. ed 60 pounds of lobster on
to eke out a living. And like Associated Press the day in November 2017
Atiliano, hundreds have tion they’ve found to cope tary safety equipment and found, had suffered symp- that he was injured.
been stricken with the with poverty is diving, no use aging tanks and masks. toms. A diver makes 75 Even now, after nine ses-
bends — decompression matter the risks. In the Mos- Just how many have been lempiras ($3) per pound of sions, he hasn’t recovered.
sickness caused when ni- quitia, diving permeates stricken is somewhat un- lobster and 7 lempiras (28 For a man who always
trogen bubbles form in div- everyday life. In the fishing clear, though all agree it’s cents) for each sea cucum- made his living diving, it’s a
ers’ bodies. Some are para- village of Kaukira, worship- a large number for such ber. An average 10-pound nightmare being confined
lyzed. Some are killed. pers are called to church small communities. (4.5-kilogram) daily haul of to a wheelchair.
With more than 60 per cent by the sound of a hammer Jorge Gomez Santos, a for- lobster is a windfall in one “I still can’t stand up by my-
of its 9 million people living on a diving tank instead of mer president of the Asso- of the most impoverished self,” he said. “I can’t sit for
in poverty, Honduras is one a bell. Safe standard diving ciation of Disabled Hondu- regions of the Americas, a long time; after an hour
of the poorest countries techniques call for a grad- ran Miskito Divers, said this so many take the risk, and my body hurts.”
in Latin America, and the ual ascent to the surface to month that at least 2,200 many suffer for it, like Atilia- Cedrack Waldan Men-
Mosquitia is one of the most eliminate the nitrogen that Miskitos now work on the no, who dove for 25 years doza, the physical therapist
impoverished areas. the body’s tissues absorb boats, and he said at least without a problem until that operating the chamber,
Among exotic, tropical during a dive, and for a lim- 1,300 have been disabled day in September. said the divers are driven
vegetation along the Ca- it to the number of dives a since 1980. Gomez, who The father of 10 was para- by poverty, and even if in-
ribbean coast, the region person makes in a day. uses a wheelchair, said 14 lyzed on the boat, which jured, return to the boats.
is sprinkled with small fishing But many of the divers of have died this year alone. didn’t reach the docks for “You run into them in the
villages where indigenous Mosquitia dive deeply, sur- A study more than a de- another day and a half. street and ask them why
villagers live in clapboard face quickly and then go cade ago cited by the Fellow divers then drove they’re going (back to div-
houses. A sign of the pov- back for more, racing to Pan American Health Or- him about 10 blocks to the ing) and they say it’s be-
erty — and also the inno- collect as much lobster as ganization reported there hospital with a U.S.-donat- cause their kids are hun-
cence of childhood — kids possible. The boats, where were around 9,000 divers in ed hyperbaric chamber in gry,” Waldan Mendoza
play with trucks made of they spend days playing the Mosquitia, and around city of Puerto Lempira, the said. “When someone tells
plastic juice boxes with cards and talking among 4,200 — 47 percent — were area’s largest city. you that their kids are hun-
lids for wheels. For many themselves between dives, disabled by decompres- Decompression sickness is gry there’s no need to ask
grown-ups, the only op- often have only rudimen- sion sickness. Nearly all, it usually treatable with ses- another question.”q