The Caribbean spiny lobster is a coveted delicacy. But its flourishing trade comes at the expense of the Indigenous Miskito community living along the Atlantic coast of Honduras, according to an investigation published in December by nonprofit news outlet Civil Eats. The prized lobster, Panulirus argus, which Honduras exports predominantly to the U.S., was a $46.7 million industry as of 2019. Most of the lobsters come from the country’s Mosquito coast, where the Miskito live in remote villages, with few jobs available. Many men consequently take up lobster diving. But it’s a perilous way of life, writer Alice Driver detailed in the investigation, one that’s killed hundreds of Miskito divers, and injured and paralyzed thousands more. Driver’s visits to some of the Miskito villages paint a grim picture. Lobster boat owners take Miskito men far out to sea, where the divers, armed with decrepit, rudimentary equipment, endure grueling schedules of 12 to 18 dives per day for consecutive weeks, wildly exceeding safety recommendations. If the men dive too deep, or if their air runs out and they ascend too quickly, they risk decompression sickness, a painful condition where nitrogen gas accumulates within the body, leading to complications like paralysis and brain disorders. The only remedy is to immediately go into a decompression hyperbaric chamber. But Driver found only a single hospital equipped with one in the region. So decompression sickness is far too common, and frequently hazardous. Among the 9,000 divers in the region in 2004 (the most recent year…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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