Today, Dr. Elmer Mejia and I spent more than 8 hours talking to a group of 18 boat captains about oxygen first aid, the causes of diving injuries and how to better care for their divers. And the amazing part was, they never stopped paying attention. Even more amazing—there wasn’t a single monster in the room.
Lobster Symposium
After that opening, though, the wheels came off a bit. Last week, I sent a shipment of equipment and materials to use in the training this week so it would be here in time for me to use. And it arrived in San Pedro Sula last Thursday. And that is as far as it got. For some reason it got hung up in customs.
The organizers of the event were very understanding, and actually somewhat apologetic since they knew it was their own governmental system that caused the delay and not us. We’ve rescheduled the four groups of boat captains into three and will get all the training done beginning tomorrow. Just the way it goes. We begin at 8:30 in the morning teaching oxygen first aid. I’ve honestly taught this DAN program to more than 500 students and in a couple different languages (through interpreters) but I am really looking forward to these programs the next few days. I can’t think of a place it has ever been more needed or a single class that I think could have a better chance of directly improving the life and health of a human being. That is pretty cool.
Full Circle
On that visit, we learned how dire the situation was: more than 2000 men were disabled because of diving, and hundreds more joined them every year. And those were the men who lived through their injuries. Many others didn’t.
Now I’m back in La Ceiba. Dr. Mejia invited me down to help him put on three days of training in Oxygen First Aid and additional measures for the boat captains and owners. These are the men who care for (and are responsible for) the divers. This problem isn’t new and there isn’t an easy solution. If you shut down the diving—like has been proposed and the government has attempted to do—the men have no way to make a living and no way to support their families. Their only other option is smuggling drugs. But if something isn’t done, more men will die.
This scheduled training is a great first step. The boat owners realize they have to do something. They have to be more responsible. And they have to take better care of their divers. If they don’t , the government is prepared to shut them down for good. And then everyone loses.
So, I was thrilled to hear from Dr. Mejia when I arrived that he had been invited to speak to the Honduran National Congress in Tegucigalpa today and give his recommendations on how the divers can reduce their risk and how we can improve their care. That is a tremendous first step and a great recognition of the work Dr. Mejia has done. He has not been alone in this. Many others have pursued this project over the years. Groups have conducted training for the divers, lobbied the government and provided health care opportunities. The changes we are seeing (I say very hopefully) are the culmination of many different people working for many years to improve things for these men who harvest the sea.
The next few days should be interesting as we are going to attend a symposium tomorrow where various groups will be taking up these exact same questions. And then the training begins the next day. It should be an interesting week.
Hopefully this won’t just be a circle, but an upward spiral.
Requiem for a friend
There are not enough souls in the world like that of Agnes Milowka. She will be missed.
Ag was a laughing spirit and an adventurer with a smile that lit up the room. An accomplished presenter, she loved to speak about the wonder she saw on her journeys. She was a gifted filmmaker and photographer as well, bringing back wonderful images to share with the world. Agnes recently released her new website, and was constantly adding features to it. She seemed to love sharing her images, talking about her speaking engagements and interviews and continuing to promote diving and her form of adventure.
We only met in person a couple times, but we stayed in touch online. We often “liked” each other’s adventures and I enjoyed reading about her exploits. I was very proud, most recently, to say that I had a friend who was a “stuntie” (her word) on the recently released movie Sanctum. She served to keep the actors out of trouble in the water.
Ag died in cave diving accident over the weekend. On Friday, she posted to her Facebook page and on Twitter that she was excited about getting wet and diving in the caves at Mt. Gambier near Melbourne. I recall seeing the post and “liking” her status. I just wanted her to know that I was excited for her that she was going to jump in the water.
There is no real way of knowing what happened. It wll be investigated and hopefully we’ll learn something from it. But, regardless of the cause, the world is slightly darker now without her shining light. She was the embodiment of an adventurer. The tag line on her website is “Passion, Daring, Adventure.” In my mind, she typified each of those terms.
Rest in peace, Ag.
To read more about Agnes Milowka, I invite you to visit her website at http://www.agnesmilowka.com/.
Part 1 — Telling the story
Harvesting divers in Zanzibar, 2006 |
The first group of harvesting divers I met was in Zanzibar, Tanzania in 2006. These men harvested sea cucumbers for export to Asia and were excited to learn about the hyperbaric chamber we were there to train the local divers to operate. I understand since its installation most of the people who have been treated in that chamber are those same cucumber divers.
In January, we got word about a new chamber that Dr. Elmer Mejia had opened in La Ceiba, Honduras. He was treating Miskito Indians injured while harvesting lobster. Everything fell into place and Dr. Matias Nochetto and I were on our way there in February. Since then things have snowballed with connections to two other groups of divers in different parts of the world. These other dive communities essentially do the same thing, but use slightly different techniques and with more or less organization. And more is still to come.
I remember in school the stories from the early part of the 20th century about the exploitation of workers and the hazardous working conditions. I fully realize that these conditions still exist in many different parts of the world in sweatshops and mills. I also realize that I can’t right all the wrongs or stop all the injustices. The situation of harvesting divers hits home a bit more for me, though. As a diver and a person who makes a living working for dive safety, it is troubling to see men be disabled or killed doing exact thing that I do for fun and call a sport. And worst of all, we know what is causing the injuries these men receive, we know how to treat it when they are hurt and we have a pretty good idea how to avoid it, too—or at least reduce the risk significantly.
My journey this year has been eye-opening, exciting, frustrating, frightening and amusing. It has taken me to Honduras, Mexico and Brazil. In the process I’ve met some amazing and inspiring people. They are working day in and day out, enduring difficult circumstances to make the lives of harvesting divers better, safer and healthier. Now it’s my turn. There is a two part article, talking about the situation in two different locations, now online at AlertDiver.com. There is also a photographic slide show of 18 images. I look forward to your comments after reading the articles and seeing the images.
Simply go to AlertDiver.com. Click on the Features link and find the Harvesting Divers article. That main article will lead you to a sidebar and a photo essay of 18 images.
Below are two links to other parts of this project.
• Using still images and video segments I shot along the way, we created a video you can watch on Youtube– DAN Video Guy page:
• National Geographic took an interest in this project and featured it in the Nat Geo News Watch:
From here, I will continue to tell this story with live presentations and other publications. Next week in Las Vegas at the DEMA Show I will be giving two presentations on the situation and plan to take that talk on the road next year.
But, also, it is time now to move onto Part 2 – working with these divers to improve their lives..
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