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RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHTG #0295/01 0912054
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 312054Z MAR 08
FM AMEMBASSY TEGUCIGALPA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7884
INFO RUEHZA/WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
RUEAORC/US CUSTOMS AND BORDER WASHDC
RULSDMK/DEPT OF TRANSPORTATION WASHDC
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UNCLAS TEGUCIGALPA 000295 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR WHA/CEN, WHA/EPSC, EEB/BTA, DRL/ILCSR AND OES/OMC 
AID FOR BARBARA BEST 
COMMERCE FOR NOAA (NANCY DAVES) 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EFIS ELAB ETRD SOCI HO
SUBJECT: DEADLY CATCH: DIVING FOR LOBSTER OFF THE MOSQUITO 
COAST 
 
¶1.  (U)  Summary:  At least 258 divers have been killed and 
850 injured diving for lobster on the Honduran North Coast 
over the last two decades.  The Honduran Fisheries 
Association states that Honduras has among the highest 
rates of lobster diver casualties in the world.  Dangerous 
diving procedures are responsible for the casualties. 
While some divers receive successful decompression 
treatment, those who do not face a bleak economic and 
health future.  The GOH planned to outlaw lobster diving in 
2005 but has since backed away from this plan, instead 
adding permits for 11 new lobster dive boats.  Much of the 
lobster harvest, including meat from undersized and 
egg-bearing lobster, makes its way to United States and 
Canadian markets, often by way of El Salvador to avoid Lacey 
Act prosecutions.  End summary. 
 
--------------------------- 
Causes of the Problem 
--------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (U)  In the past two decades, hundreds of Honduran 
lobster divers have been injured or killed on the job. 
Their injuries are caused by making too many dives in a 
day, diving too deep, coming up too fast, lack of safety 
equipment or even basic equipment such as depth and 
pressure gauges, ignorance of dive physics and an economic 
desperation that makes many divers deliberately disregard 
their own safety.  Whereas a recreational SCUBA diver is 
likely to make three dives a day, to a maximum of 90 feet, 
Honduran commercial lobster divers average 12 dives a day, 
to depths of 80-120 feet, remaining underwater until the 
air runs out of their tanks.  Diving with such frequency to 
such depths causes dissolved nitrogen to accumulate in the 
bloodstream beyond the limit of the human body to absorb 
after resurfacing.  This can cause nitrogen bubbles to form 
in the blood -- a condition commonly referred to as "the 
bends," which can be fatal.  Resurfacing too fast can have 
the same effect.  Immediate treatment in a decompression 
chamber is the only way to avoid permanent injury. 
 
¶3.  (U)  Despite multiple, repeated requests, the GOH was 
unable to provide a list or even a total number of injured 
or deceased lobster divers.  EconOff reviewed a list 
maintained by the Injured Divers Association; this list 
yielded 258 dead and 850 injured.  Most contacts suggest 
these figures are extremely conservative.  From August 2007 
through February 2008, 107 divers were treated for injuries 
at Anthony's Key Decompression Chamber on the island of 
Roatan alone.  During EconOff's visit, there were four 
injured divers being treated inside the decompression 
chamber.  Two divers were outside the chamber with crippling 
limps, and one was paralyzed from the waist down. 
 
------------------------- 
The Mosquito Coast 
------------------------- 
 
¶4.  (U)  While lobster boat crews come from La Ceiba and 
the Bay Islands and the diving activity takes place on 
reefs throughout Honduras' northern coastal seas, the 
lobster divers virtually all come from the impoverished 
northeastern Mosquito Coast, Gracias a Dios Department.  No 
roads connect Gracias a Dios to the rest of Honduras. 
Access is by air or water.  Centuries ago pirates built 
camps and ships here to prey on galleons carrying gold and 
silver back to Spain.  Even today there is little law 
enforcement or other government presence and few economic 
opportunities beyond lobster diving and drug trafficking. 
Most of the 50,000 to 100,000 inhabitants are of the 
Miskito or Pech indigenous groups, Afro-Honduran or 
Mestizo. 
 
¶5.  (U)  Commercial lobster dive boats first came to the 
Mosquito Coast in the 1990s.  Initially boats with a dozen 
divers, diving to shallow depths, could harvest their fill 
of lobsters.  As the industry grew, more and more divers 
crammed onto dive boats.  The law allows each relatively 
small boat to carry 35 canoes, 35 divers and 35 canoe 
paddlers plus the boat's own crew.  During a tour of one 
 
such boat, EconOff observed abominable diving conditions. 
As the lobster population dwindles, divers must go deeper 
and deeper to find their catch.  Deeper dives lead to a 
vastly increased probability of injury.  Often, according 
to both divers and crew, the boat captain will make no 
effort to bring an injured diver to a decompression 
chamber, since such an action would lead to a shorter and 
therefore less profitable voyage.  Even if he does, the 
chambers may be one to five days sail away -- a delay 
making fully successful treatment unlikely.  If a lobster 
diver dies while at sea, his body is placed in the freezer 
with the lobsters. 
 
----------------------------------- 
Assistance for Injured Divers 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  Insurance for divers, although now mandatory, is 
not available, according to both the Honduran Fisheries 
Association (APESCA) and the divers themselves.  Better 
equipment is also mandatory, though this has had no effect 
on the rate of casualties.  These sources also tell us 
there are no contracts with the boat captains or company 
owners.  Honduran Social Security will not cover divers, as 
the occupation is considered too dangerous.  However, by 
custom, an injured diver may receive USD 750-5,000 from the 
boat owners, depending on the extent of his injuries, and 
the family of a dead diver may receive USD 5,000-7,000. 
EconOff interviewed several lobster divers who said these 
sums can be much lower depending on the boat captain.  Most 
planned to return to diving despite their injuries.  Dr. 
Rafael Diaz from Anthony's Key Decompression Chamber, which 
receives the majority of divers who seek treatment, 
confirmed that most divers return to work, forever facing a 
higher risk of more serious injury.  For those partially or 
fully paralyzed, the options are bleak once the injury 
payment is expended.  A few may find employment paddling 
the canoes of other divers or have family members who can 
provide long term care.  Many develop bladder infections or, 
if paralyzed, bed sores.  Several sources confirm that in 
this hot, humid, remote tropical climate with scarce access 
to medical care, such infections often lead to death. 
 
¶7.  (U)  American NGOs have donated wheelchairs to the 
region. 
Some wheelchairs were brought into the country through the 
Denton Amendment and delivered to the region by Joint Task 
Force-Bravo assets.  NGOs also have plans to open and operate 
additional decompression chambers.  USSOUTHCOM has invested 
over USD 300,000 in a hyperbaric chamber and other 
renovations 
for the hospital at Puerto Lempira in Gracias a Dios.  Such 
actions are helpful but do not address the cause of the 
injuries.  In other nations, governments have taken action, 
such as requiring divers to use boat-mounted, fixed length 
air hoses, strictly enforcing their commercial dive laws, or 
outlawing commercial lobster diving altogether in favor of 
trap 
fishing.  The GOH had planned to outlaw lobster diving in 
2005, but has since backed away from this plan, and added 
permits for 11 new lobster dive boats.  APESCA states that 
Honduras has among the highest rates of lobster diver 
casualties in the world. 
 
--------------------------------- 
Where do the Lobsters Go? 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶8.  (SBU)  The primary markets for Honduran lobster tails 
are the United States and Canada.  One large U.S. seafood 
chain 
states it buys only trap-caught lobster.  However, 
mechanisms to determine the legality or method of capture 
of seafood are virtually nonexistent.  During a four month 
investigation, EconOff spoke to over a dozen contacts, 
each of which was certain that Honduran dive-caught 
lobsters were making their way, in tremendous numbers, to 
the United States and Canada.  One mechanism may be "lobster 
tail 
 
meat," which sells for USD 12 per pound in the United 
States.  Since legal size lobster tails sell for USD 26 per 
pound, the most likely economic incentive to sell "lobster 
tail meat" would be to cover up the small size of the 
tail.  APESCA, divers and NGOs have suggested the product 
enters the United States via El Salvador, which does not have 
a 
domestic law regulating the size of lobsters that may be 
harvested.  The absence of such a law allows lobster 
importers to avoid convictions in U.S. courts under the 
Lacey Act.  The lobsters are killed with a spear, then 
pulled out of their hiding places.  No examination or 
measurement is made of the lobster.  Undersized and 
egg-bearing lobster are harvested along with the rest.  As 
a result of this tactic as well as over-fishing in general, 
all sources agree the lobster stocks are in decline, though 
specific numbers are unavailable. 
 
--------------------------------- 
An Eye Toward the Future 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶9.  (U)  The leaders of both the Association of Injured 
Divers and the Association of Active Divers are looking 
into alternative employment.  For divers paralyzed from the 
waist down, construction and repair of lobster traps is an 
option.  For future generations, there are many options, 
including agriculture (African Palm and cacao), fishing, 
eco-tourism, aquaculture (shellfish and blue crabs, inside 
the numerous lagoons) and forest products, including legal 
logging, furniture making, and traditional crafts. 
 
------------ 
Comment 
------------ 
 
¶10.  (SBU)  While better equipment and diver education have 
had no apparent effect on the rate of casualties, economic 
incentives have worked well with the Honduran fishing 
industry.  An active Turtle Excluder Device (TED) 
monitoring program has ensured that shrimp are harvested 
without harming sea turtles; failure to comply results in 
an embargo of Honduran shrimp from the U.S. market. 
Some have suggested that a ban on dive-caught lobster from 
the U.S. market, with a three-year grace period, would 
encourage 
divers to find alternative employment or encourage the 
Honduran 
lobster fishing industry to convert the dive boats to 
fixed-length-air-hose or trap boats.  End comment. 
Ford