Utila Lobster Diver Program

Samantha Elizabeth is organizing this fundraiser on behalf of Kisty Engel.

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The Utila Hyperbaric Chamber in conjunction with The Whale Shark and Oceanic Research Center (an NGO in Utila, Honduras & is a 501c3 in the US), all set up By Kisty Engel, are looking to implement a training Program based out of Utila to save the Lives of Lobster Divers in Honduras.

“The world was horrified when we realized how many dolphins we were killing because of our hunger for tuna, but very few people know how many human lives have been lost and families devastated because of our hunger for lobster,” Dr. Matías Nochetto, director of medical programs at Divers Alert Network (DAN).

The Utila Hyperbaric Chamber (UHC) has seen firsthand the extent of injuries these divers face as we treat their decompression sickness (DCS). Over the years, we’ve had minor cases and major cases where the patient comes in paralyzed from either the waist or neck down. All doctor prescribed treatments require 4 people to run the chamber for up to 6 hours per treatment, some of the more severe cases can easily extend to daily treatments for more than 20 days. These divers have no way to pay for one treatment, let alone multiple treatments, they have little or no training and poor dive equipment; they often don’t even have any depth or pressure gauges.

When the onset of DCS symptoms occurs, these divers often don’t understand what they are. The tingling and pain they experience is ignored until it has worsened to become paralysis and treatment may be more complicated. Their employers often don't cover any of the financial costs if this treatment is needed, and act as if divers are replaceable. All they know is that they need to catch lobster to provide for their families, and they don’t understand the risks involved in what they’re being asked to do.

We want to break the cycle.

Our objective is to educate the divers, promoting safer and more environmentally conscious dive practices and give them an alternate revenue income that will both reduce the pressure on the lobster population and concentrate their efforts on removing the harmful lionfish from our reefs.

Our goal is to get the Honduran Government involved to create better regulations to protect these divers and our ocean. By involving them in the project, they can see firsthand the areas where regulations would help to keep these divers safe without jeopardizing their income which is so needed for their family. We hope that this pilot project will inspire a wave of change for these divers and their families that will have a lasting positive impact in our environment. The final goal is that the project will become self-funded and will grow into a larger group of trained divers in the following years, who will be taught to follow Honduran laws and become more aware of the delicate eco balance. In turn they will encourage their children to do so, creating a new generation of environmentally aware divers.

The first phase of the project is to train 20 divers in safer ways of diving and teaching them how to hunt for lionfish and how to provide emergency first aid, the funds will also go to making sure the divers are outfitted with safe and working equipment and to contribute to a documentary that is being shot to illustrate the issues that the workers of this industry face.

All donations will be put through a registered 501(c)(3) organization and tax donation receipts will be issued to all donors.

https://www.sportdiver.com/dangerous-and-often-deadly-scuba-diving-lifestyle-miskito-people

Clip By NBC News and Eric Douglas