Miskito Coast
Lobster diving came to the northern coast of Honduras and Nicaragua in the 1960s as American restaurant chains’ demand for inexpensive lobster grew. For the buzos (lobster divers) of the 300 mile-long Miskito Coast, who routinely make 15 or 20 dives a day, the cost of the lobster industry is manifest in what they call the golpe or hit. Until recently, most Miskito divers took this to be a form of divine vengeance. Liwa, the goddess of the sea, is said to strike down divers who take too many lobsters, as commercial divers routinely do. Recently, however, while not renouncing Liwa’s mystical powers, divers have come to call the golpe by more scientific names — decompression sickness (DCS), caisson disease — or simply the bends.
For more information please visit: Michael Bonfigli
