Books by Eric Douglas

Thriller fiction and Non-fiction

  • Home
  • Mike Scott Thrillers
    • Held Hostage: Search for the Juncal
    • Water Crisis: Day Zero
    • Turks and Chaos: Hostile Waters
    • The 3rd Key: Sharks in the Water
    • Oil and Water: Crash in Curacao
    • Return to Cayman: Paradise Held Hostage
    • Heart of the Maya: Murder for the Gods
    • Wreck of the Huron: Cuban Secrets
    • Guardians’ Keep: Mystery below the Adriatic
    • Flooding Hollywood: Fanatics at the Dam
    • Cayman Cowboys: Reefs Under Pressure
  • Withrow Key
    • Lyin’ Fish
    • Tales from Withrow Key
  • Agent AJ West
  • About the Author
    • Publicity and Interviews
  • Nonfiction
    • For Cheap Lobster
    • Heart Survivor: Recovery After Heart Surgery
    • Oral History
      • Batter Up!
      • Memories of the Valley
      • WV Voices of War / Common Valor
      • Capturing Memories: How to Record Oral Histories
    • Dive-abled: The Leo Morales Story
    • Keep on, Keepin’ On: A Breast Cancer Story
    • WV Voices of War / Common Valor
    • Russia: The New Age
    • Scuba Diving Safety
  • Free Short Fiction
  • Other Fiction
    • Sea Turtle Rescue and Other Stories
    • River Town
You are here: Home / Diving / Return to Honduras

Return to Honduras

June 4, 2010 By Eric Douglas

Sunday morning I head back to the airport and from there back to Honduras. While my last two international trips were about the completion of a project, exhibiting a collection of photographs, Honduras represents the beginning of a new one—and a new adventure.

After making sure everything is in order on Monday after my arrival, on Tuesday Dr. Elmer Mejia and I are traveling by airplane (there are no roads to get there) to Puerto Lempira in the La Moskitia region of Honduras to visit with lobster divers. Reportedly, there are around 9,000 Moskito Indians in the region who dive regularly harvesting lobster. About half of them have some neurological condition, including severe paralysis, that was caused by the extreme exposures and dive conditions these divers experience. They often dive well beyond any recommended dive table in the hunt for lobsters, sacrificing their bodies, so Americans can have all-you-can-eat lobster.

The problem is these divers don’t see any other way to make a living. If they try to dive more safely—as people have tried to teach them before—they can’t collect as many lobsters and feed their families. If they don’t dive, there really aren’t many opportunities for them to earn a living at all. That is, none without helping to run drugs across Honduras heading north to the American market. So, in short, it comes down to feeding one American appetite or another to make a living and probably die trying.

Dr. Mejia and I are going to visit these divers, many of them his former patients, in their villages. I hope to learn more from them about their diving circumstances, the conditions they work in, and understand their lives at home.

Not sure how much access I will have to the internet. I will be able to connect in La Ceiba, but I’m doubtful about the time I’m in Puerto Lempira. Never know until I get there.

And away we go!.

Filed Under: Diving, Documentary, Photography, Travel

Real Thugs: A Cult of Murder — Small groups of travelers have disappeared all over the mid-Atlantic without a trace. When bodies turn up with what appear to be ritual markings, FBI Agent AJ West is on the hunt for what might be a serial killer. Or something even more sinister. It’s a race against […]

View Book

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Substack
  • Threads
  • YouTube
Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 ·