Honduran and nicaraguan moskitia

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THE LOBSTER FISHERY

OF THE

HONDURAN AND NICARAGUAN MOSKITIA

A study of the resource, its sustainable exploitation and the problems of the

Miskito divers working in the fishery
by

Arcadis Euroconsult

Arnhem

Netherlands

for

THE WORLD BANK

September 1999

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The consultants are indebted to a large number of specialists and industry participants who assisted with the study in both Nicaragua and Honduras. Particular thanks are due :

to the owners of lobster fishing vessels and processing plants, community leaders and divers, for their willingness to contribute valuable data to the study
in Nicaragua, to ADPESCA^¹ and MARENA^² for the loan of workboats and computing facilities; to MIKUPIA^³ and their staff for logistic support and provision of staff for the diver census
in Honduras, to MOPAWI^⁴ for logistics support
to specialists in numerous government agencies in Honduras and Nicaragua for their support and supply of data
to Dr Humberto Castro Olayo and Robert Armington for running the diver First Aid course in Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua

Valuable information on the biology of the Caribbean spiny lobster Panulirus argus was obtained from a range of published documents. Important reference material for this text was provided by various publications of Dr Sergio Martinez, Dr Manuel Pérez and Renaldy Barnutty of ADPESCA, Nicaragua and by a definitive book on the subject “Spiny Lobster Management” edited by Phillips, B.F., J.S. Cobb and J. Kittaka and published in 1994 by Fishing News Books, Oxford, U.K.

Page

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY v

1 INTRODUCTION 1

2 METHODOLOGY 2

3 THE MAIN PROBLEMS FACING THE INDUSTRY 4

3.1 Sustainable exploitation of the resource 4

3.2 Diver safety 4

3.3 Alternative employment through economic development 4

3.4 Product handling and diversification 4

4 THE LOBSTER FISHERY 5

4.1 Description of the study area 5

4.2 The “Industrial” and “Artesanal” fleets 7

4.3 History of the Fishery 7

4.3.1 Nicaragua 7

4.4.1 Honduras 12

4.4.2 Current state of exploitation of the lobster fishery in the Moskitia 14 4.4.3 The Moskitia Lobster Fishery as part of the Caribbean Resource 18

4.6 Laws and regulations 25

4.6.1 Nicaragua 25

4.6.2 Honduras 27

4.6.3 General 28

4.7 Action needed for the future sustainable exploitation of the resource 29

5 PRODUCT HANDLING 32

5.1 Introduction 32

Handling and Storage 33
Problems 36
Improvement of the situation 36

6 SOCIAL ASPECTS (summary: for full text see Appendix I) 38

6.1 A Brief Overview of the Moskitia Region 38

6.2 Communities 39

6.3 Economy 39

6.4 Agriculture 40

6.5 Informal and formal education 40

6.6 Community healthcare 42

6.7 Traditional health and healthcare 42

6.8 Clinical healthcare 43

6.9 Clinical Healthcare Available to Divers 44

6.10 Drugs and alcohol: a health and social problem 44

6.11 Sexually transmitted diseases 46

Health Problems of Miskito Lobster Divers 46
Disabled Divers 50

SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS 51

7.1 For the future management of the fishery 51

7.2 To improve diver conditions 51

APPENDIX a

A Recommended features of monitoring program, outline, costings b

B Diver training program and costings d

C The need for an Integrated Rural Development project for the Moskitia f

D Outline of a fisheries development project h

E Summary of data from encuestas k

E.1 Summary of key data from the industrial diver survey k

E.2 Survey of fishing activities in the Coastal Communities of the Nicaraguan

Moskitia l

F Notes of important info gathered and not included in main text n

F.1 Information from interviews with artesanal trap fishermen in Nicaragua n

F.2 Information from interviews with artesanal free divers p

F.3 Information from interviews about artesanal SCUBA divers q

F.4 Information from interviews about the industrial sector q

F.5 Information from interviews in Honduras r

G Terms of Reference t

H List of contacts/interviews x

I Socio-economic Conditions and Health Problems of Miskito Lobster

Divers in Nicaragua and Honduras - Full text aa

1. Introduction aa

2. Socioeconomic Conditions Of Lobster Divers aa

A Brief Overview of the Moskitia Region aa

Communities cc

The Moravian Church cc

Economy dd

. Agriculture ee

Animal husbandry and cattle raising ee

Informal and formal education ff

Transportation and communication hh

3. Socioeconomic situation of Miskito Lobster Divers ii

General Health Conditions in the Moskitia ii

Community healthcare jj

Traditional health and healthcare jj

Clinical healthcare kk

Drugs and alcohol: a health and social problem ll

Sexually transmitted diseases nn

Health Problems of Miskito Lobster Divers nn

Disabled Divers ss

BIBLIOGRAPHY vv
FIGURES
Fig.1 : Map of the Moskitia 6

Fig.2 : Nicaraguan Atlantic Lobster Landings 1964-1998). 8

Fig.3 : Contribution of the Industrial and Artesanal Fleets to the Total Nicaraguan Atlantic

Lobster Catch 1990-1998 9

Fig.4 : Nicaraguan Atlantic -Number of National and Foreign Licensed "Industrial" Boats in

Operation 1992-1997 10

Fig.5 : Honduran Atlantic Lobster Landings 1978-1998 13

Fig.6 : Annual Lobster Catch: Nicaraguan and Honduran Atlantic 1978-1998 14

Fig: 7 : Life Cycle Of The Spiny Lobster 20

Fig.8 : Principal Current Pattern of The Caribbean 21

Fig.9 : Phillips Type Puerulus Collector 24

Fig.10 : The Miskito Cays Reserve 31

TABLES
Table 1 : Nicaraguan Lobster Exports 8

Table 2 : Contribution of fisheries categories and diving and trapping fishing methods as a percentage of the total annual national lobster fishing yield in Nicaragua. 10

Table 3 : Percentage contribution of trapping and diving fishing methods to the total annual lobster fishing yield of the Nicaraguan national industrial fishing fleet. 11

Table 4 : Honduran Lobster Exports 1997-1998 13

Table 5 : Questions and answers regarding catch and effort during the survey of lobster

divers of the industrial diving fleet based in Puerto Cabezas. 16

Table 6 : Clinical Care Available to Divers in the RAAN 44
PHOTOGRAPHS
Photo 1: Packing Lobster 1

Photo 2: Sailboat Catch 3

Photo 3: Sailboat 7

Photo 4: Trapper's Hut 12

Photo 5: Unloading at Compressor area 33

Photo 6: Fishermen's Hut 35

Photo 7 : Young Divers 41

Photo 8: Compressor Station 48

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This report presents the results of a two month study carried out for The World Bank in July and August 1999 in the Honduran and Nicaraguan Moskitia. A team of four consultants from Arcadis Euroconsult of the Netherlands (two marine biologists, an anthropologist and a specialist in seafood handling and processing) collaborated in the study.

The lobster fisheries of the Moskito Coast are currently the most valuable single-species fisheries of the two countries and also the main providers of local employment. There is concern for the future sustainability of the lobster resource and also regarding the high level of diving-related accidents and deaths that have occurred over the past decade among the Miskito divers working in the fishery. The main objectives of the study were to report on these two problem areas and to prepare recommendations for future management.
There is a wide spectrum of people interested in the current activities and future of the Moskito Coast lobster fishery and the study work plan reflected the need for broad consultation and information gathering. Discussions were held with the widest possible cross-section of stakeholders interested in the fishery, including boat and processing plant owners, divers and trappers, middlemen, community leaders, members of the police forces and navies, representatives of the Ministries of the Environment, Fisheries, Health and of Labor, of the local and regional governments, doctors working with injured divers, US trained divers working locally, NGOs^⁵. In addition a Workshop was held in Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua on 12 August to present the study team´s preliminary findings to all interested parties and receive comments and recommendations from the stakeholders before preparation of the final report.
Both the Honduran and Nicaraguan Moskitia were included in the activities and data collection of the study, but greater emphasis was placed on Nicaragua as the situation there is more complex, there are more artesanal divers involved and the area defined for the study, around the complex of Cays between Latitude 14° and 15°30’N, is largely in Nicaraguan waters. As ancillary activities to support future management and improvement in the fishery, the team also carried out a census in Nicaragua of 400 active divers from the industrial fleet; another of some 50 disabled ex-divers; and a third, of the vessels and number of people employed in the fisheries sector in the various communities between Puerto Cabezas and the Honduran border. Under the diver health component, a one day training course was mounted in Puerto Cabezas to train 28 representatives from the industrial and artesanal diving fleets in first aid techniques. This covered the treatment of divers suffering from decompression sickness (bends) and other related accidents. Also a training video (in Miskito) was in preparation at the time of this final report for future distribution to the dive boats and communities. It was identified that this would be a highly effective and cost-efficient method of improving diver training.
The Honduran lobster fishery has been in decline since 1991 when 20 year peak (annual) landings were registered of 8.01 million pounds of tails. This peak was partly related to capture in the newly accessible Nicaraguan waters at the end of the Sandinista period. Honduran (annual) landings fell to around 4 million pounds of tails by the years 1993 through 1996, and to a little under 3.3 million pounds in 1997 and 1998. The Honduran Atlantic fleet is oversized and management measures such as the imposition of a closed season for several months each year have been largely circumvented, putting the future of the fishery in peril. The study team recommends that the fleet should be further downsized and that the closed season should cover conch and fish trap operation at the same time as lobster to make protection of the resource more likely.
In Nicaragua, official annual lobster landings have risen from 0.5 to around 3 million pounds of tails during the 1990’s as a result of increasing fishing effort since the end of the war. There is evidence that the catch has been leveling off over the last few years, but interpretation of data is complicated by the likelihood that illegal capture and unregistered export may account for a further 1.5 million pounds of tails per year. Illegal fishing is believed to be principally carried out by Honduran, Colombian and Jamaican vessels. Analysis of the size of lobster reaching the plants shows only a small decrease in average size during the 1990’s, but data collected on the catch per effort of the artesanal and industrial divers, including during the present study, suggest that the fishery may already be in more severe decline than simple total landings and average size might suggest. This is a matter for concern especially because the spiny lobster has a three year cycle between egg and capture and damage done to a breeding population today may not be noticeable until three years hence.
6-11 months of the early life cycle of the spiny lobster are spent as a floating planktonic phyllosoma. It is likely that, during this stage, lobsters spawned in Nicaragua make an extensive journey around the Caribbean before returning to settle in the grass beds of the Moskitia as a 3-4 cm long puerulus. For this reason, not only should the fisheries of Honduras and Nicaragua probably be considered as a biological whole, but the population dynamics of the lobster in the Moskitia may affect, and be affected by, fishing activities in Costa Rica, Panama, Cuba and even as far away as Florida in the USA. It is important that efforts be increased for comprehensive regional studies of the fisheries related biology of this economically important species.
The study team recommends that a community based management plan be established for the lobster fishery in the Nicaraguan Atlantic, involving representatives of the various stakeholders and based on geographical division of fishing areas, building on the existing status quo in the Northern Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAN). Increased monitoring of the fishery is essential and this will require a halt in and reversal of, the decline in the importance and funding given by Central Government to the Fisheries Authority ADPESCA. The monitoring program should include : improved data collection and supervision on board fishing vessels; regular counting of the puerulus stages arriving in signal areas (this has been shown in work in countries such as Australia and Cuba to allow accurate prediction of recruitment levels to the fishery two years in advance and thus, effective control of total effort to protect the fishery); policing to prevent illegal entry of foreign boats and flouting of the fishing zone regulations; and, supervision to enforce the ban on the capture and marketing of undersized juvenile and gravid female lobsters. Implementation of a requirement for an escape gap of 2.25 inches in lobster traps is a further essential step needed in both Honduras and Nicaragua . Currently Honduras has the regulation but it is widely flouted, Nicaragua has it as a recommendation, but not yet as a requirement. During the period that the proposed monitoring and policing plan is being implemented it would be wise to limit total Nicaraguan Atlantic lobster landings to the current level of official record of around 3 million pounds of tails per year. This can be done by phasing out the foreign fleet over the next year and mounting effective policing of the territorial waters to prevent illegal foreign fishing.
The closed season for lobsters in Nicaragua has not been enforced during the last five years except for the foreign fleet, mainly because of the lack of alternative employment for the local artesanal divers. The idea of a closed season has widespread support, including among the artesanal divers themselves, but the shortage of work in the region and a cultural disinclination to accumulate savings in times of surplus have been major obstacles to implementation. Because of the nature of the life cycle of the spiny lobster and the fact that breeding takes place year round in the southern Caribbean (with some peaks) a closed season is in any case, a way of reducing total effort and increasing efficiency, rather than a method of protection of breeding animals or promotion of recruitment. The idea of an effective closed season should not be discounted by the fisheries authorities, however, as it has been implemented with less social problems in neighbouring Honduras.
The situation of the Miskito divers working in the fishery has seen some improvement in recent years in both countries, but the number of accidents and deaths continues at unacceptably high levels, particularly in the industrial fleet. Training and the effective implementation of diver certification programs are much needed. There is still a wide lack of understanding amongst the divers regarding basic safety measures and the true origins of the “bends” or golpe as it termed locally. The influence of the Liwa, the guardian spirit of aquatic resources, is still in many cases blamed for the symptoms. Education is needed to make divers aware of the need for safe diving practice and of the correct remedial measures to be taken in the case of accident. Maintenance of compressors, regulators etc. in both countries also needs substantial improvement if diver safety is to be respected. In Honduras, a requirement for hydrostatic testing of air tanks was successfully enforced in 1997 and it is important that this be done also in Nicaragua where most of the tanks inspected during this study show test dates from the early 1980’s (the limit for an aluminum tank is 5 years).
It is noteworthy that almost all of those involved in the diving fishery, from boat owners to the divers themselves, would prefer to leave this currently dangerous activity and change to trapping or fishing to earn their living. The obstacle to their doing this is the lack of alternative employment for the divers. There is a strong case for mounting an integrated rural development project in the region that would target not only the creation of alternative economic activities for the divers but also address problems in infrastructure, communications etc.. There may be potential for the development of a number of other activities in the vast areas of under-utilized land in the region, possibly including the cultivation of rice and cashew nuts. There is also potential to create employment in the fin-fish capture sector: an outline project proposal for approaching this through a matching of the skills of private entrepreneurs with the need for development aid to the poor fishing communities is included as an addendum to this report.

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