AP PHOTOS: Lobster divers risk injury, death in Honduras

[Judi Lynn]

Rodrigo Abd and Moises Castillo, Associated Press
Updated 12:16 pm CST, Wednesday, December 26, 2018



In this Sept. 1, 2018 photo, men ride past on their horses, in Irlaya, Honduras. Among exotic, tropical vegetation along the Caribbean coast, the Mosquitia region is sprinkled with small fishing villages where residents live in clapboard houses.. Photo: Rodrigo Abd, AP / Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Photo: Rodrigo Abd, AP
IMAGE 1 OF 37

PUERTO LEMPIRA, Honduras (AP) — Saul Ronaldo Atiliano was diving for lobster in the clear waters off Honduras' Caribbean coast when he felt a pressure, a pain in his body. And he knew he'd gotten the sickness that has killed or disabled so many of his Miskito comrades.

"The pressure attacked me deep in the water," said Atiliano, a 45-year-old Miskito who for 25 years has dived for lobster, most of which winds up is exported to the United States.

Thousands of men across the Mosquitia region of Honduras and Nicaragua depend on lobster fishing to eke out a living. And like Atiliano, hundreds have been stricken with the bends — decompression sickness caused when nitrogen bubbles form in divers' bodies. Some are paralyzed. Some are killed.

With more than 60 per cent of its 9 million people living in poverty, Honduras is one of the poorest countries in Latin America, and the Mosquitia is one of the most impoverished areas.

More:
https://www.chron.com/news/world/article/AP-PHOTOS-Lobster-divers-risk-injury-death-in-13490780.php