Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Lobster Fishing
I love lobster. Fortunately while we were in Guanaja, most of our meals were fresh caught seafood. Lobster is a major fishery in Honduras. There are a couple of ways to catch lobster.
One is by trap boat. These boats stay out to sea for 8 to 9 months at a time setting and pulling lobster traps like those seen below.
Working on a trap boat is hard, lonely work. However, consider the other way.
The boats with lots of little dorys on top are commercial lobster dive boats. These boats and their crew of lobster divers and tenders work on average 15 day shifts. The divers dive for 14 of the 15 days, 6 to 8 hours a day, catching lobster by hand! They have no gauges (depth or pressure) and no training. The job pays well but takes a horrible toll. As they say "there are no old lobster divers". Many of the young ones are crippled from the bends (excessive, potentially fatal, buildup of nitrogen in the body) . Our divemaster and boat driver were both ex lobster divers. Neither one liked to talk about it. The boat driver Tony would only tell us that he quit after he was attacked by a shark while spearfishing on his day off, trying to catch fish for his family. The scars on his body told the rest of the story.Below are a couple of links that describe the plight of Honduran and Nicaraguan lobster divers. You will never look at those lobster tails quite the same way.
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/segments/working/lobsterdiving.html
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/10/1001_021001_lobsterdivers.html
Guanaja, Bay Islands, Honduras, Feb/March 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Villa at Dunbar Rock
Ever wanted your own private island? Rumour is that its for sale if you have an extra $1.7 million (USD) lying around.Villa at Dunbar Rock, Guanaja, Bay Islands, Honduras, Feb/March 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Remora
I think most of us are familiar with the group of fish called remoras or sharksuckers. Anyone who has watched Jacques Cousteau has seen these fish that have a suction cup attached to their head. Typically they attach themselves to larger marine animals such as sharks, whales, turtles and such. In addition to a free ride, these fish scavenge anything edible left behind by their host.
If you don't know about remoras click on this link.
Tracey and I were shocked to see this lonely looking remora swim up to us during a dive. At first it was very exciting - we had rarely seen remoras unless occasionally attached to some other fish - until it dawned on me what it wanted... a free ride and a host!Luckily it considered its options and decided to turn away and look for something better. Turns out something better was our dive partner Paul. For some reason it took one look at him and fell in love.
Paul knew something was wrong. Tracey and I were pointing and laughing and taking lots of pictures.
He felt something near him but no matter how much he swatted the unknown pest away it seemed to come back - sometimes in unfortunate locations!
Finally the dive ended and we could let him in on the joke.Guanaja, Bay Islands, Honduras, Feb/March 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Safety Stop
Tracey hanging out during our safety (decompression) stop.Guanaja, Bay Islands, Honduras, Feb/March 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Saturday, March 21, 2009
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