Rock center (tv Show)

[Garrobo]

Having lived in Honduras from 1979 to 1982 and spent several years later on in the country, I can attest to the slave-like conditions that the lobster divers lived along the Mosquito Coastal area. It hasn't changed much since those days. No equipment to speak of, doing ten to twenty dives a day, most of the divers were crippled up by the time the got to their thirties. They had no, and have no choice in the matter. It's dive for the rich guy who owns the boat or their children starve or die from malnutrition. If you boycott their products the same thing will happen. It's a sad situation. As far as a depth guage, SPG or pressure guage is concerned, that's a waste of time. These divers already damn well know the depth and the pressure.

 

[Wookie]

Wow. Everything in cycles I guess. The Honduran lobster divers plight has been shown many times over, from 60 minutes about 15 years ago right up through last night, I guess. The divers don't take well to education. The boat crew has no incentive to make it any easier on the divers, because these villagers are fighting for a spot on the boat. If they dive safer, then the lobster production goes down, therefore there are fewer lobsters to sell. These guys are crammed into old refit Gulf of Mexico shrimp boats 30 at a time for these trips. There is no privacy, little to eat but rice and beans, and folks get hurt every day. As long as the gear comes back, the divers are replaceable. DAN tried to go down there a couple of years ago to educate the divers. It didn't take. One of the chamber operators (SSS I think) tried to donate a couple of chambers to treat these guys, but it didn't take.

Red Lobster is the main culprit. They have factory freezer ships that freeze just the tails by the ton. I will not eat at a Red Lobster.

@RonFrank, it is illegal to dive for lobsters in Maine or New Hampshire. I've seen divers peppered with rock salt from a shotgun just for diving near a fisherman's traps. You may take North American lobsters in states south of New Hampshire.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

Red Lobster is the main culprit. They have factory freezer ships that freeze just the tails by the ton. I will not eat at a Red Lobster.

I thought red lobster serves red lobster (aka cold water lobster)?

 

[Thalassamania]

I saw the situation in Honduras with my own eyes in the mid 1980s when I went there at the urging of Bob Izdepski, an ex-commercial diver who was trying to install, equip and operate treatment chambers there. I will not eat at a Red Lobster, I have not done so since that trip.

SPUMS Journal Volume 24, #4, December 1994: An Epidemic of Decompression Illness

New York Times: Devoted to Keeping Lobster Divers of Honduras Alive

Alert Diver: Harvesting Divers at Risk

New York Daily News: Lobster divers dying in Honduras, struck with paralysis and decompression illness

Inter Press Service News Agency: HONDURAS: Death Looms Over Miskito Lobster Divers

Guy Harvey Magazine: Lobster as Sustainable Seafood – Unhealthy for the Men Who Harvest Them