Nicaraguan lobster divers harming species, selves

Nicaragua

Nicaragua is one of the last places in the Caribbean where commercial lobster diving is still permitted despite its tragic human and environmental toll. Largely unregulated, the lobster industry on Nicaragua's humid, 225-mile-long Miskito coast has taken the lives of an estimated 200 indigenous Miskito men over the past two decades. Meanwhile, some 800 Nicaraguan divers are unable to work on account of paralysis or other physical problems related to diving. And divers, heading farther and deeper into the sea in pursuit of dwindling lobster populations, have made the crustacean virtually disappear from the shallows they once hunted two decades ago. "All kinds of nasty things are going on," says Chuck Carr, a marine biologist with the Wildlife Conservation Society, a leading U.S... [Log in to read more]

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