Free Trade Fallout
Seeking Lobsters, Miskito Indians Find Death

JIM WYSS / SF Chronicle 29sep02

Industry kills, disables divers to get pricey exports

Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua -- Clebas Thompson was crawling around in the murky haze 140 feet below the surface of the Caribbean looking for spiny lobster when Liwa Mairin -- the mermaid that protects Miskito Indian divers -- turned her back on him.

She had protected him in the days when he held his breath underwater for more than a minute and plucked lobsters by the armful from the shallow waters near his village. And she had looked after him for nine years when he worked for a local boat captain, hunting the thinning patches of lobster deeper into the sea.

"It was late in the afternoon, and I had gone through about 12 (compressed air) tanks and was feeling really dizzy like I was drunk," Thompson recalled, slurring his speech and struggling to tame a jerking leg. "I got scared and swam to the surface and that's when it hit me and I had some sort of attack."

What hit him was a severe case of decompression sickness, or "the bends," caused by a buildup of nitrogen in the bloodstream -- the inevitable result of diving too deep for too long and surfacing too fast. A decompression chamber saved his life, but it was too late to keep him from becoming a quadriplegic at the age of 28.

As foot soldiers in the $40 million lobster export industry, Nicaragua's 4, 000 to 5,000 Miskito Indian divers are increasingly being killed or disabled in the race to place cheap lobster tails on U.S. tables.

What was once a way of life along the coast -- the Miskitos have historically harvested lobster for their own consumption -- has become one of the country's fastest growing industries, with 90 percent of the catch exported to the United States and Canada.

Now, in this remote region of salty marshes and white sand beaches, young men in wheelchairs seem to outnumber tourists. The Association for the Integration of the Disabled into Society in Puerto Cabezas estimates there are 1,500 disabled former divers along Nicaragua's Caribbean coast.

While other organizations put the number lower, a 1999 World Bank report said: "Some limited medical studies have shown close to 100 percent of (Miskito) divers show symptoms of neurological damage -- presumably due to inadequate decompression."

Robert Izdepski, founder of the Louisiana-based Sub-Ocean Safety (SOS) foundation, says poorly trained, shoddily equipped and completely unsupervised divers are being pushed well beyond international norms by profit-driven boat captains and exporters. Several years ago, divers routinely found lobster at 40- to 60-foot depths. Today, they plunge to depths of 100 to 150 feet.

"There is no effort by the industry to teach them about the real dangers of diving, because they would be scared to death to work," said Izdepski. "It's like a mine owner who knows the shaft is crumbling, but sends men to their deaths anyway."

Without depth or pressure gauges, divers are encouraged to work from sunrise to sunset, typically going through eight to 12 air tanks a day for 15 days at a stretch. Most work without contracts, lured by the prospect of making $2.40 to $3 per pound of lobster. The haul is then sold to a handful of processing and export plants. In restaurants and stores, a 5- to 6-ounce lobster tail can fetch from $15 to $20.

With so much money at stake, few want to damage an industry that employs thousands and brings in millions of dollars. Many divers fall back on folk beliefs like mermaids, demons or perceived personal character flaws to explain the deaths and injuries.

Dr. Humberto Castro Olayo, an expert in hyperbaric medicine -- which treats decompression illnesses with oxygen in an enclosed chamber -- is pushing for divers to be trained and certified. He also wants depth and catch limits imposed, scuba gear regularly inspected and alternative fishing techniques such as trapping and netting encouraged.

Since 1996, Olayo says he has treated more than 500 divers for decompression illnesses and has seen dozens perish.

"Most divers are from small villages," he explained. "When they get sick, they just go back to their community. Some die and others stay there paralyzed,

but we never hear about it."

As he talks, Olayo examines a lobster diver complaining of a debilitating pain in his back and knees.

"If the (decompression) chambers were running, I would put him in for two hours, because there's no way to tell how many nitrogen bubbles he has built up or what might happen to him," he said.

The country's three decompression chambers, one of which was donated by SOS,

are currently inoperable. "All I can really do is treat the pain and hope he gets lucky," said Olayo.

The administration of President Enrique Bolanos, who took power earlier this year, appears to be taking the problem seriously. For the first time, the government imposed a two-month lobster moratorium, and labor and health officials have visited Puerto Cabezas to assess the situation.

Miskito residents, however, say they are used to politicians making empty promises.

"I have talked to reporters, government officials, foreigners -- all sorts of people -- and they all say they will do something to help us," said Thompson. "But then they leave and nothing ever happens."

Thompson says the key is education and alternative employment. The region is home to 240,000 Miskito Indians, who are mostly poor and uneducated. Thompson said he earned a fortune as a lobster diver in a nation where per capita income is less than $500 a year.

"Sometimes I brought in 80 or a 100 pounds a day and made over $1,000 per trip," he said. "There's no other work here that makes so much money."

Each afternoon, Thompson watches cartoons as he practices exercises that a physical therapist taught him. After more than a year of needing help to eat, urinate or roll over, he has regained enough strength in his arms and legs to support himself on a walker.

"I haven't left the house in three months, because there's no one who can get me down the stairs," he says.

While business interests are largely sympathetic to Thompson and other injured divers, they place the brunt of the blame on the divers themselves.

"There have been attempts to teach divers about the dangers but they are really very resistant to change," said Alfonso Gonzalez, the general manager of Atlanor, a Puerto Cabezas processing plant that buys lobster from independent boat captains and exports to the United States.

"There's not a businessman on the coast that doesn't want to see the situation improve, but it's just the way it is right now."

Darden Restaurants, which operates the Red Lobster chain and buys Nicaraguan lobster, says it purchases only trap-caught lobster.

"Of course we are concerned about the divers, but we're also concerned about the quality of our lobster," said Jim DeSimone, Darden's vice president of communications. "Dive-caught lobsters are often underweight and damaged, so it just doesn't make sense from a social or business perspective."

While Darden won't name its distributors or quantify its imports from the region, DeSimone said the restaurant's Central American suppliers are inspected for compliance of using only trapped lobster twice a year.

Olayo, the medical doctor, says there is plenty of blame to go around:

"I would call it widespread institutional neglect. The government needs to regulate the industry, boat captains and exporters need to take responsibility for their workers, and divers need to take care of themselves.

"I also think U.S. consumers need to realize the price that is being paid for what they are eating."