Books by Eric Douglas

Thriller fiction and Non-fiction

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The issue with Miskito divers

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In October, I traveled to Honduras with a news crew from NBC to help them understand the diving issues revolving around Miskito Indians diving for lobster. They often end up paralyzed or dead. The story also profiles an amazing human being, Dr. Elmer Mejia, who has dedicated his professional life to helping these men.  

Much of the background the crew used for the story came from the documentary work I did while working at DAN. They were carrying around copies of articles I wrote for Alert Diver Magazine and had all seen the 10 minute documentary I created while working on my final certificate in the Documentary Arts from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.

Below are links to some of my blog posts from Honduras and my thoughts and observations on the problems. Tomorrow, after the story airs tonight on NBC’s Rock Center, I’ll begin posting behind-the-scene blogs and photos from the trip. It was fun and interesting to travel with the large news crew. And it was also rewarding to see them begin to appreciate the scale of the problem as we traveled around.

Hyperbaric Clinic in La Ceiba

Purpose

Lobster Symposium.

Cayman Revisited

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In 2003 and 2004 I spent several weeks on Grand Cayman. Those trips planted the seed for my first novel, Cayman Cowboys.
I still remember the germ that began to grow with that first book. Steve Barnett was showing me the blowholes on the east end of the island. As we walked across the iron shore–craggy coral exposed to the air and rain–I first imagined what would happen if I fell. Bleeding was sure to commence. Second, my imagination ran to “how scared would someone have to be to run across this stuff”. And from that, a novel was born.
Much of that first book revolves around Sunset House and My Bar. Mainly because that was where I stayed on those first two trips and because it’s a cool, laid-back place with lots of character. This morning, for the first time since Cayman Cowboys was released, I’m back on Grand Cayman. It’s sunny and gorgeous, warm with only the slightest of breezes. I’m staring at the 82-degree flat-calm water in front of me and am about to go make a dive. Just the way I remember it.
I’m working on my next novel and it’s coming along nicely. A lot of the action takes place on an island not far from here, but I don’t want to spoil the surprise. After some major changes in my life, I lost the motivation to write fiction for a while. Major case of writer’s block. But I’ve crossed that hurdle and the words are flowing again.
With each story, I think I get better at writing and creating characters and scenes. But I owe a lot to this place for getting me started writing about diving. That first book wasn’t a work of  high literature, but it’s a fun story. A friend who lived and still works around the island, visiting regularly, told me “it is so Cayman”. I’ll take that.
Will there be a Cayman sequel? Never say never I guess. Who knows what will happen next? I sure don’t.

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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. .

Caveat Emptor Lobster

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I’ve written a lot about lobster on this blog, the practices around harvesting it and the terrible cost harvesting divers pay when they go out to catch lobster. One aspect I’ve never talked about, though, is the people who are buying them and then selling them in the US. I hope to dig into that topic more in the near future, but here is an interesting little tidbit.

Over the weekend, a friend took a picture of lobster for sale at a local discount warehouse store with a pretty large seafood section. There is no way of knowing if this lobster was caught by hand or by trap—both techniques are used in Brazil for harvesting lobster. The interesting part is there has been a 6 month moratorium on harvesting lobster in Brazil. It was done so the lobster would have time to reproduce and grow. The moratorium was just lifted on June 1, 2011.  The package says this lobster was packed on June 3. While it is technically possible that this lobster was caught on the first day of the return to fishing and rushed off to market in the US, the odds are low. And if it had been, why would it be frozen?

So, either this lobster is very old and has been frozen a long time, or it was harvested illegally and inappropriately. The package does say “previously frozen”, but I doubt any consumer would expect it to be frozen for 6 months or more. I wouldn’t be thrilled to pay $25 US for something that had been frozen that long.

I’ve said it before and it bears repeating now, I’m not opposed to harvesting or eating lobster – although I haven’t had lobster since I began the Harvesting Diver Project. Simply stopping the harvesting of lobster would simply put a lot of people out of work with no real solution to the problem—it would simply make lobster that much more exotic and expensive without helping the fishermen. I can just see black market lobster being sold at exorbitant prices rivaling the drug trade. That said, this is another great example of a supply system that needs fixing.

If you don’t believe me, read the original article yourself from Brazil talking about the return to lobster fishing. It’s in Portuguese, but your browser can translate it.
“Icapuí Hoje é um dia de voltar à rotina: madrugar no mar, mergulhar manzuá e esperar que dali venham lagostas bem graúdas, porque por seis meses elas se reproduziram e ontem acabou o período do defeso. […]”

 

“Icapuí. Today is the day to return to the routine: up early in the sea, diving manzuá and expecting to come back with big lobsters, since for six months they must have had enough time to reproduce and grow big, and the banning period has just ended yesterday.[…]”

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