Books by Eric Douglas

Thriller fiction and Non-fiction

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Different Perspectives

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Nearly 22 years ago I made my first scuba dives in Summersville Lake in West Virginia. I’ve made hundreds of dives since then in some amazing places, but that freshwater, manmade lake will always hold a special place in my logbook. I often tell people one of my most memorable night dives was there, lying on my back watching my bubbles rise into the reflection of the full moon on the surface.

I’ve also had the opportunity to dive there with my dad. Definitely one of those father/son moments. When I would come into town, we would grab gear and run up there for a day. Not that much to see, but always fun to blow bubbles and bond for a bit.
An interesting factoid about West Virginia is that there are no natural lakes in the state. The terrain is too vertical. There are lakes all over the place, but they all have a dam at one end where men decided to create them—usually as water reservoirs or for flood control. The dams and spill ways that make them work provide an interesting opportunity for divers. Every year, the US Army Corps of Engineers lowers the water level about 80 feet to “winter pool”. This allows them to hold back water in the winter and spring as heavy rains and snows roll through the area, protecting property downstream. But every 10 years they lower the lake even further –about 130 feet—to perform maintenance on the flood gates and other submerged structures.
What better way to look at your familiar dive sites from a totally different perspective? Take the two photos of my dad for example. One is him tying off a dive flag last summer and the second is him standing beside the same rock with the empty lake in the background.
Another photograph shows Battle Run campground where it juts out into the lake. It’s hard to see in this photograph, but near the bottom are a picnic table and some small concrete statues—between the two large rock outcroppings. These were placed there by some divers I happen to know. When the lake is full, they are more than 100 feet underwater.
I think looking at that hole in the ground where water is supposed to be represents my thoughts on my return to West Virginia in general. It is at once familiar and different. Seen through different eyes and from a different perspective, I’m trying to figure out where I fit in again and how I can be involved.

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Home again

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I’ve taken a bit of a hiatus from writing this blog the last couple months as I reorganized and re-evaluated some priorities. But, I’m ready to talk about my next adventure—if you’re interested in reading about it.

I’ve moved back to my hometown after nearly 14 years away. I have lived in California and North Carolina and had the great fortune to travel the world during this time. I counted it up a few days ago. I’ve made 35 trips to 15 countries.
There are lots of reasons for this decision—all personal. And my reasoning behind this move isn’t what I want to talk about. I want to talk about the act of going home. In some ways I’m the same person who left here in 1998. The core values and sense of humor remain the same. On the other hand, I have seen a lot and experienced things that have shaped the person I have become. It will be interesting to see how the modern day me adjusts. I’m just as curious as anyone else.
Several years ago, a friend asked me why I’ve never written about West Virginia. As a newspaper reporter here, I loved telling stories of the people I met. After I left, it just wasn’t something I thought about. In the last year or so, as I finished up the documentary work in Honduras, I began to think about home.
So, I have returned to Charleston, West Virginia to see what I can see and write about West Virginia for a change. I hope, though, that it will be as much about discovering me at the same time.
I hope you continue to follow along. I think it’s going to be interesting.
Eric

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Learning from diving

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Last Thursday and Friday, seven teens were certified to dive in Key Largo, Florida. I have no doubt that is an extreme understatement, but, these seven teens were a bit different than the average teen learning to dive. They were all foster kids.

Family Support Services of Northern Florida (an organization that administers the foster care programs in several counties) taught the students to dive as they were about to “age out” of the system. In just a few months, each of these teens would be 18 and no longer covered by the foster care system—effectively out on their own. (From what I understand, Florida has a great support program beyond 18 years old, but their foster families are no longer paid to house and support them.)

A friend I’ve known since elementary school happens to work for the program and invited me to speak to the kids and go diving with them. I hope the kids learned something from what I talked to them about; I’m sure I learned from them.

While the kids were learning to dive and appreciate the ocean and the wonder of a clear water and marine life all around, they were also learning bigger lessons. They were learning about team work and supporting their buddies. They were learning about responsibility.   And they were learning about setting goals. None of these kids have had it “easy”. They’ve grown up without parents. They’ve grown up without family. I’m sure counselors could tell me all the things that does in a person’s mind even when things go relatively smoothly. There is no way it is a good thing for your self esteem.

But these kids had a spark about them, and they were excited. I asked a couple of them if they were nervous about diving off of a boat – thank you Ocean Divers in Key Largo – and they said yes, they were, but they immediately launched into how excited they were to be there and how much fun they were having. It was a whole new world for them.

My talk was about diving, traveling and the opportunities that can come through working in the diving industry. But I also hope I got across the message that whatever they care about—whatever it is that makes them excited—there can be a future in that as well. In diving, there are engineers, designers, graphic artists, marketing people, accountants and every other job description you can think of. Every company needs business people to make it run. I encouraged them to figure out what it was that excited them and to figure out how to apply their own talents to it.

I came away from my time with this group of seven kids energized. They were so excited and happy to be learning to dive. Better yet, they saw opportunities and potentials. They had learned their lessons of responsibility and leadership. They had also learned to look out for each other. Was it perfect? Not hardly. My hat’s off to the chaperones, by the way. I would not have wanted to deal with those seven kids that far from home. But the kids taught me to keep focused and keep moving forward. They weren’t letting the challenges they have faced stand in their way.

So, when I want to complain or let someone else’s anger and negativity get in my head, I’m going to think about those kids. And I’m going to get excited!

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Sea Turtles

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A couple years ago, as I read through the umpteenth Magic Treehouse book with my daughters, I realized that you can communicate important historical or scientific concepts to kids—you just have to make it fun. About that same time, I also remembered that A) I am a writer and B) I make a living talking and writing about diving and the ocean. From there, it was a fairly simple leap to decide to write a children’s chapter book that my girls could read and enjoy.

That was the easy part. The much harder part was thinking about what to actually write about. Even more difficult was how to write it at the appropriate level. I write a lot for adults – and usually that comes in at around the 8th grade level. But when you’re writing for kids it has to be believable and understandable, but not too simple either. Kids will get bored or annoyed when something is too far above them or two far below them.

I finally settled on sea turtles. Most divers will tell you turtles are one of the coolest big critters to see in the ocean. They are infinitely graceful and at ease in the water. They move slowly and majestically – well it seems slow. But if you get in a turtle’s way, or make it uneasy, and you will quickly see it swimming away and there is no chance you’ll ever catch it.

Sea turtles are also endangered. The pressures of human development, trash in the ocean and declining habitats make it important that we protect them. Even more significant, sea turtles are a big, cool creature. And if we protect them, we end up making the oceans better for all the animals –and for us at the same time. In some ways, sea turtles and other large animals become the canaries in the mine. They decline, get sick and die before other animals might, but also while there is still time to correct the damage we have done. Scientists can tell you all the reasons that it is important to protect the ocean and all the ways a healthy ocean supports are lives even if we don’t realize it. But personally, I can’t think of a sadder place than an ocean with no sea turtles.

After the book was finished, friends arranged for me to share the book with the children at Seaside Elementary school in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The kids drew pictures for me to illustrate each chapter. In return, I spent an entire day talking to their classes about sea turtles, diving, writing and everything else they could think of. The pictures they drew became the art used to illustrate the book.

The good people at Oceana believed in this project and took it on as a supplement to their Sea Turtle campaign. They printed 1000 copies of the book and have distributed them at sea turtle functions. But the book is also available online for free. You can download it and share it with your own children.

I have placed a link to the book on my website. Go to www.booksbyeric.com and follow the link from the front page to Oceana’s site. Download the story, email it to friends, neighbors and anyone else you think might be interested. Or, share the link with them. I donated this story to Oceana simply because I want every child in the world to understand and appreciate sea turtles just like my own daughters do..

Changing lives—promises kept

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In June of 2010, I traveled to Puerto Lempira, Honduras to meet with representatives from the Association of Handicapped Miskito Lobster Divers. I wanted to understand the forces that drove them to sacrifice their lives and their health to harvest lobster.

As part of those meetings and discussions, one member of the association told me that other groups had visited with them before, taken pictures and notes and then nothing had come of it. Mentally I promised them that I wouldn’t be one more visitor who simply took from them without giving anything back.
Earlier this month, almost a year to the day from when I visited with the association members, Dr. Elmer Mejia and I conducted training for each of the boat captains so they will better be able to care for divers on board their boats when the inevitable happens. During that training and the accompanying symposium, I also ran into one of the men from the association. We simply said hello, but I wondered if he remembered the discussion we had at the association office.
Dr. Mejia and I also made a series of recommendations that, if enacted, should reduce the risk these divers face daily.  We also recommended that those previously disabled divers should be trained as on-board medics. The idea was that these divers would be dedicated to caring for a diver, and be prepared to administer oxygen, insert a Foley Catheter if necessary and even deliver an IV if it was appropriate. This serves several benefits for the divers. They would have a knowledgeable person on board to take care of them—and someone dedicated to their care, rather than the boat captain. I also can’t think of a better “role model” as a medic than a diver who has been hurt before. “If you don’t want to end up like me, listen to what I say.” That is an extremely powerful testimony.
Overnight, I received word from Dr. Mejia that the boat owners association and the handicapped divers association are working together to make this happen. Small groups of the disabled divers will soon begin traveling to Dr. Mejia’s clinic in La Ceiba to receive 6 weeks of training in diving medicine and caring for injured divers.
As I’ve said many times before there are no easy answers to this problem. But this sure seems like a good start to me.

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Lack of empathy?

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Earlier today, the people who produced the documentary film “Fresh, new thinking about what we’re eating” posted a blog on their website that I wrote about the situation with Harvesting Divers. The documentary film is all about our nation’s food supply and is well worth watching. They are also getting into the realm of sustainable seafood and so they were interested in this topic.

I am grateful for the additional attention this group brought to the issue, bringing it before an entirely new audience. When they posted it, they also posted their link on their Facebook page, again putting the information in front of a new group of people. Read the blog here.

I was surprised, though, by a couple of the comments people posted on Facebook afterward. I realize that not everyone sees the gravity of this situation, understands it, or cares – but this was interesting.

  • How can people working in this industry not understand the dangers?
  • I do sympathize with these divers, but they are making the consious (sic) choice to take this job.
  • For starters, we could reconsider *what* we eat, and take a different job that doesn’t involve taking life like this — yours or the creature’s.
  • Know and respect the dangers… In any line of work! Common sense, too.

The problem is, for most of these men, there aren’t alternatives. They are fishermen. That is all they know. Many are illiterate. They don’t understand what happens to their bodies. Ok, there is actually one alternative – at least for the divers in Honduras. They can get involved in the drug trade, helping to distribute drugs to the US from Colombia.

These are men working in an industrial setting for a company doing hazardous work. I see no difference between this and coal miners in the 20s and 30s, migrant farm workers in the 60s and 70s and sweatshop workers or people working in packing plants today. The only difference is, their actual working environment is even more dangerous –with the exception of the coal mine perhaps.

I just thought we had learned from our mistakes and moved forward, understanding the need for safe working conditions and proper training. I guess not everyone sees things the same way. .

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