The Crimmins point out that it is not uncommon to see police and members of La Fiscalía come and go from the Wesley’s hotel at odd hours with, what they presume to be, mistresses and prostitutes. This is a claim backed up by infamous local attorney Melvin Rosales, who said that it is well known that members of these groups get “special rates”.

At just past noon on Friday, August 19, Sam Wesley — a West End business owner (Crystal Beach Cabins) with roots on Roatán Island dating back to the 1840’s — came out of his house, pulled out a silver revolver, pressed it into Joe O’Donnell’s back, pulled the trigger and then walked back to his house without saying a word. There were at least five witnesses to the incident. As Mr. O’Donnell collapsed in the street, concerned shop owners Shannon and Christian ran to his aid, Mr. Wesley’s wife, Rosita, wagged a finger at them indicating her desire for them to leave the 40-year-old Australian dive instructor to bleed to death in the street. As a large crowd gathered, it seemed that Mrs. Wesley might get her wish. People took photos, screamed and gawked… but no one took action.

Fortunately, Paul Cleveland — an 18-year Roatán resident was on the scene, and his military training kicked in. He stuffed one of his fingers in the bullet hole, sent someone to retrieve a bag of ice, and secured a truck to transport Mr. O’Donnell to the local hospital. Mr. Cleveland, who describes himself as a long-time good friend of Mr. Wesley, was also the first to make a statement against him. He said the crime had “no motive” other than Mr. Wesley was acting “completely on his wife’s inclination”.

Mr. Cleveland also expressed amazement that Mr. Wesley could be out of jail in 24 hours. He said, “The law seems to be more concerned with cocaine possession, If Sam had been caught with a kilo they would not need anyone to make an accusation and he would still be in jail.”

You can read more of this article at Honduras Weekly: http://hondurasweekly.com/wild-and-crazy-justice-on-roat%C3%A1n-island-201108244034/

It’s time to break out your underwater cameras: the Roatan Marine Park is holding its Third Annual Marine Photography Contest!

Winning images will be printed in the 2011 Roatan Marine Park Calendar in order to showcase the natural beauty of Roatan’s coral reefs and highlight threats to their future survival.

Entries accepted for six categories:

• macro
• reef inhabitants
• black and white
• divers
• reefs at risk
• invertebrates

Deadline for submission:
31 July 2010

Details:

• All images must be from Roatan
• Images should be in .jpg format. Please include your full name, entry category, where image was taken, and a title
• Photos may be under or above water, but must maintain a marine context
• 1st and 2nd place in each category will be featured in the calendar with small images for runners-up
• Submission of images constitutes your permission for the Roatan Marine Park (RMP) to use these images free of charge for the 2011 RMP Calendar and other RMP publications. All images will be credited to their owners when used.

For more details of the competition, visit www.roatanmarinepark.com.

Email images to: info@roatanmarinepark.net

Luca Pagliaro, an Italian native, has disappeared in Roatan, Honduras last week, probably on 16th March 2010, with Mauriliuo Mirabella, owner of a diveshop who has also disappeared. Everybody who has useful news about him please contact me and my mother without hesitation.

Please let me know also when is the last time you have seen him. Thanks.

Licia and Francesca

liciapagliaro@hotmail.com
francesca.vcr@libero.it

Upon receiving the good news of the curfew’s end, we laughed, swam in the sea, played poker, drank rum, played trivia, jumped in the pool, and laughed again. It was as if all of West End was celebrating an early release from house arrest. Spirits were high, the beer flowed, and, for a brief instant, life as usual resumed.

But then we stumbled home, tuned in to the world news, and recalled how despondently screwed we are.

I really don’t know what to make of this situation… it completely breaks my heart, really. I spent a good hour crying as I packed some stuff. I’m not ready to leave. This is home. This is five years of my life. This is dreams pursued and dreams lost. This is Roatan, and I love my life on this island.

My plane leaves in eleven days. I don’t know if I’ll be on it. Not yet. I’ll keep you posted.

Make sure you read Micheletti’s letter to the Washington Post in the article (also available at http://lagringasblogicito.blogspot.com/2009/09/washington-post-moving-forward-in.html). It shows a leader with a level of intelligence rarely found in this part of the world, and point-to-point reiterates my arguments against Mel Zelaya. Too bad the rest of the world sees this guy as the De Facto Dictator of Honduras.

Until later, pray for me and this crazy situation. It’s certainly not your average day at the office……

News of Zelaya’s return hit West End, Roatan, around noon yesterday (21 Sept 2009). Phone and internet connections became jammed by the heavy bandwidth load of people logging on to find out the news. The facts were scattered, but one thing loomed certain: Zelaya was indeed back in Honduras.

At 4:00PM, Roatan Municipal Police drove down West were ordering all businesses to close and everyone home. An curfew was in immediate effect until 6AM today. Both Hondutel and TIGO internet connections dropped out by 5:30PM. Digicel phone signals were weak and I was nearly out of credit. Like the RECO riots of last year, I was completely cut off from the outside world.

I arrived in West End this morning to find the town eerily desolate. The reason was soon made apparent: police patrols were ordering everyone to return home for a 24-hour curfew. No time to get food or other living essentials. Go home now.

So I’m stuck at my 90F apartment with ten strips of bacon, a gallon of water, a bag of refried beans, a pound of cat food, my Wii, limited internet connectivity, no phone service, and one orange hairball named Einstein meowing at my feet. Awesome.

Welcome back, Mel.

Lionfish, the beautiful and venomous fish from the South Pacific, have appeared on Roatan. This invasive species has spread at unprecedented rates across the Caribbean and Eastern Atlantic over the last few years.

The Roatan Marine Park is asking for everyone’s help in reporting, capturing, and killing lionfish around Roatan. If you have seen a lionfish on one of Roatan’s dive sites, please submit a lionfish report directly to the Roatan Marine Park.

Below is a letter sent by PADI Master Instructor and marine biologist Marc Cruciani regarding the grave threat posed by invading lionfish:

Hello Everyone,

I heard that the first lionfish was sighted on the north side of the island. They are beautiful fish, and make stunning photographic models, and of course everyone wants to see one. As an invasive species and voracious predator, they also represent the one of the biggest environmental threats to the reef system. I have extensive experience with these fish, both as an aquarist and a diver, and would like to share some of this with you, and impress upon you the importance of dealing with this threat immediately.

I was an instructor in North Carolina for two years. Lionfish were known to be around, and had been for a couple of years. At the beginning of my first year, they were rarely seen, and only on the further offshore wrecks. I was as eager as anyone to see my first lionfish. By the end of the second year, I was seeing them on every dive, at every site, usually in multilple numbers. Some wrecks had populations of 30 or more, and aquarists were flocking to the coast to aquire specimens. By the time NOAA finally got into the act, it was obvious that they presented a major problem.

NOAA brought a large research vessel and a team of scientists to determine the scale of the problem. Their stated goal was to dive twice a day for a week, in the hopes of collecting about 30 fish for DNA analysis. Local divers laughed at this, we already knew how widespread the problem was. In the first two days of diving, over 80 were caught.

They are now found as far north as Rhode Island in the summer months, and have spread as far south as Nicaragua from their original starting point in Florida, wreaking havoc on local fish populations. In parts of the Bahamas, they are the predominant predator on many reefs.

Lionfish are related to scorpion fish, and eat just about anything, from juvenile groupers to cardinal fish to crustaceans. According to the lates issue of Alert Diver, they eat on average .3 ounces a day. Larger fish, up to 18 inches, can eat much more. They tend to eat smaller fish, but will eat anything they can swallow. They hunt like frog fish, and like frog fish, the mouth is the largest part, and can eat prey larger than themselves.

They have no natural predators in the Caribbean. The only fish that do eat them are some sharks and possibly the largest of groupers, both of which are in short supply on Roatan. In any case, natural predation has failed to contain them anywhere in this hemisphere.

When spawning, lionfish can produce up to 30,000 eggs, and can grow 7 inches a year, reaching sexual maturity in just a year or two. In their home environments, they spawn twice a year. For reasons yet unknown, in the caribbean they seem to spawn continuously year round. DNA analysis by NOAA indicate that Atlantic and Caribbean populations are all very closely related, coming from the same source. Considering that they were first documented in Florida in in the mid 1990′s, their range is astonishing both in scope and the short time required.

They are very hardy fish, tolerant of a wide range of water conditions, and notoriously hard to kill. They can go for months
without eating, and even the foulest of fishtanks dont seem to concern them, and are adept at hiding in small crevices. I learned this while trying to dispose of an aquarium specimen without getting stung. Lionfish stings are similar to those of scorpionfish, but much worse. Larger specimens of some species can kill a human being.

Efforts at controlling them have had mixed results at best. Once established, they are impossible to get rid of. The best bet is to keep the populations in check after the first sighting. All lionfish must be removed as soon as sighted. The prevailing strategy is to have a team of trained divers who can respond to sighting.

Under no circumstances should untrained divers be allowed to try, due to the dangers involved in handling these fish, and the skill needed to find and hunt them. The best way to hunt them is to use hand nets for smaller individuals, and pole spears or hawaiian slings for larger ones. Extreme caution must be used, as even a dead fish will still have poisonous dorsal spines.

Lionfish tend to be very territorial, once they find a good hunting ground, they are likely to stay. They also move quite slowly (except for the actually swallowing of prey, which is faster than the eye can see). They prefer to hunt at dusk and dawn, and are easiest to find at these times. The rest of the time they sit on the bottom or hide in crevices, and despite their
very colorful markings, are suprisingly difficult to spot. On the plus side, they do make good eating, similar to grouper.

All dive shops should encourage customers to report sightings so that the fish can be culled, the faster the better. This will require coordination and efforts from all the dive operations and the marine park to have any kind of impact. REEF can help with training and workshops. The man to talk to is Lad Atkins. Paula Whitfield was the original NOAA project head in North Carolina.

Some contacts for more information and resources are listed below. If there is anything else I can do to help in any way, please don’t hesitate to contact me. This is a serious problem and must be dealt with. Please distribute this letter to any interested parties and dive shops who have not received it.

Marc Cruciani
MI 183782
scubadiver101@hotmail.com

Feces, meet fan.

West End police have imposed a curfew and barracaded the intersection in order to promote the public peace during this night of political upheaval. Though grossly inconvenient for West End business, the move is justifiable given the recent turn of events on the Honduran mainland. Police patrols are currently strolling the streets, blaring messages to “stay in your homes” over their crackly loudspeakers.

Ousted Honduran President Mel Zelaya’s attempts to land in Tegucigalpa today sparked civil unrest in the nation’s capital, as thousands of pro-Zelaya supported rushed the airport. Zelaya is currently in asylum in El Salvador. Two people have reportedly been killed in Tegucigalpa, drawing the first blood in this otherwise peaceful coup (or Constitutional balance of powers, as Zelaya opponents assert).

Meanwhile, thousands of Roatan residents marched in French Harbor and Coxen Hole in support of the interim administration, waiving blue and white signs painted with “Peace and Democracy.”

With a double rainbow brilliantly arching over thunderheads to the southeast, the sun melts into the glowing ripples of Half Moon Bay, spilling the surface with the oily shimmer of diffracted light. We huddle together on the balcony as the stars come out, the rum saturated laughter of a house party flooding the air, haunted by the lingering unspoken question. We do not know how this night will transpire, but we know the night is here and now and beautiful.

How many more do we have?

Before you read any more, know this:

Everything is fine on Roatan. Please keep coming to our island!

“They arrested the President.”

I stop, nearly slipping on the wet tiles of the dive shop, and lower the scuba cylinders hoisted in each hand. My skin still glistens with sea salt and sweat, my mind lost in its mental menagerie of groupers, snappers, barracudas, and jacks encountered on the previous dive. The cacophony of banging tanks and bustling interns fades into the background.

“Army moved in this morning. Two-hundred guys surrounded his house and arrested him. Dragged him out in his pajamas.”

The Boss points to the computer monitor. I quickly scan the displayed website. My gut twists.

Fifteen minutes earlier, I was floating through a weightless silent world as a kaleidoscope of aquatic life frolicked about me. Rivers of blue creole wrasse rippled over the reef, carving living waterfalls around protruding barrel sponges. Parrotfish hovered at forty-five degree angles as translucent cleaning shrimp crawled through their nostrils and gills. A hawksbill turtle glided beside me, heads mere feet apart, our eyes sharing mutual expressions that, down here, everything is right with the world.

Surface side, everything seems wrong.

As word of the President’s arrest circulated the world, I avidly tracked the news reports flowing across the web. The facts don’t match up; each report seems biased towards its originating country. I have been following the progression of events in Tegucigalpa as the crisis neared its boiling point; though I do not claim knowledge of (nor wish to be involved in) Honduran politics, this is the series of events as I best understand:

• Honduran President Manuel Zelaya proposed that a non-binding public referendum be held to vote whether to call a National Assembly to rewrite the Honduran Constitution— specifically, to remove the one-term, four-year limit imposed on the Honduran Presidency.
• The proposed referendum was rejected by Congress and the attorney general. The Supreme Court ruled the referendum illegal on two points:
  • Article 239 of the Honduran Constitution, which forbids former chief executives from being re-elected President and requires any citizen proposing such changes to cease carrying out public office.
  • Article 42, Section 5 of the Honduran Constitution, which states that citizenship is lost for inciting, promoting, or supporting the continuation or reelection of the President.
• Impeachment proceedings began against Zelaya; however, the Honduran Constitution, which was ratified in only 1982, lacks a clear constitutional process for impeaching and/or removing a sitting President.
• President Zelaya ordered General Romeo Vásquez to use the Honduran Military to distribute the referendum on Sunday, 28 June 2009. Vásquez refused on grounds that the referendum was illegal and to distribute it would violate the Constitution. Consequently, Zelaya fired Vásquez, but the Supreme Court ordered he be reinstated.
• The morning of the referendum, 200 military personnel, acting on Supreme Court orders, surrounded Zelaya’s house, arrested him in his pajamas, hauled him off to an airport near San Pedro Sula, and flew him to Costa Rica.
• Congress voted unanimously to accept a purported letter of resignation from Zelaya, who has personally denied composing any such letter.
• Acting President Roberto Micheletti ordered a 48-hour curfew to stem potential violence and began assembling a new Presidential Cabinet.
• Many foreign leaders, including Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and United States President Barack Obama, have condemned the arrest as a coup and refused to work with the interim government. The UN has called for Zelaya’s reinstatement.

Personally, I laud the defense of the national Constitution and condemn the methods with which it was defended.

This is Honduras— therefore, the mishandling of the situation does not surprise me. In a country robbed of its culture by centuries of exploitation, foreign manipulation, and self-destructive corruption, this fledgling republic has scare experience upon which to base a peaceful balance of power. For many Hondurans— deprived for decades of true independence by many of the nations currently criticizing the coup— there exist no conceivable means of impeachment other than the democracy of a loaded gun.

Despite the international outcry, nearly every Honduran I’ve spoken with has been in support of Zelaya’s removal. The President was largely unpopular throughout the last year, enough that his own party led the call for his impeachment. Cheers when out around the island when the news broke. But now, feeling the sting of the international criticism, the most oft-repeated Honduran mantra seems to be “respect our sovereignty.”

Funny the way it is: foreign troops invading another country and disposing of its leader against the will of its people is considered promoting democracy, whereas a national military removing its own leader with the support of the people is undemocratic.

Politics truly is mankind at its lowest.

On Roatan, all is fine so far. The sea is still calm, the water clear, the fish vibrant, the scenery incredible, the drinks flowing, and the laughs rich and heartfelt. We laugh about how this “terrible coup” has wreaked havoc on our lives: there’s tanks rolling down the street, the locals are loaded, and there’s a submarine in the bay. Just a few hundred miles from the epicenter of a swelling international sore, Roatan truly feels a world away. It’s just another crappy day in paradise.

But on the horizon looms the mounting cumulus nimbus of uncertainty. Transportation around mainland Honduras has been interrupted, stranding coworkers and visitors across various parts of Central America. Travelers have already canceled their plans out of misguided fears planted by US travel advisories. And the rumblings of international condemnations indicate the storm is far from over.

Any setback to tourism is a clot in Roatan’s economic arteries— and our island’s heart, still shaken from the recent earthquake, now trembles with the adrenaline of apprehension. The memories of three agonizing days of black outs, blockades, and disrupted business from last year’s RECO protests linger in the minds of the island residents. But supposed coup or not, life goes on as usual— businesses are open, the bars are full, and the scuba diving is phenomenal.

Yes, life goes on; and on Roatan a good life it is.

You can read more about the massive quake here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090528/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_honduras_earthquake

I would love to breathlessly recount the terror of being awoken at 2:30 in the morning by the cacophony of howling dogs and buckling earth, but unfortunately for my readers (but fortunately for me) I am in the States at this time attending my little sister’s wedding. I have no stories to share. Thankfully, word is that no one in West End was seriously hurt and properties damages were minimal. Business and life continues as usual in our sleepy little diving town.

Earthquakes are not unusual for the island; I’ve experienced a handful of minor shakes over the last four-plus years, but nothing even remotely the magnitude of a 7.1. Given that Roatan sits atop the Bonacca Ridge, a deep sea mountain range created by the collision of the Caribbean and Central America tectonic plates, it’s not surprising that the earth gives the occasional rumble.

Please keep the Honduran families on the mainland in your thoughts and prayers. These people, already living in impoverished conditions, have very few means with which to rebuild their shanty homes. As much as people in the US love to bitch and moan about FEMA’s inadequate response to Hurricane Katrina, they have no idea what it’s like to live in a country where the government has almost no means to provide care to its citizens when disaster strikes— and certainly no idea what it is like to endure a disaster when the rest of the world hardly takes notice.

The bell rings. My arms pump in rapid yet rhythmic alternation, delivering haymakers and uppercuts to the facial region of my foe. He ducks, weaves, and wallops a low kidney-shot to my torso, simultaneously crumbling my defenses and body with a single emphatic blow. I twitch on the ground in agony. Despite the fervent shaking of my arms, I remain unconscious on the floor. The time ticks away—eight, nine, ten—and it’s finished. I’ve lost.

And yet another fourth grader has kicked my butt at Wii Boxing.

Tonight was the Coconut Tree Carnival for the Kids, a fundraiser supporting the SOL International Foundation. Whether it be ring tosses, football throws, darts and balloons, coconut throws, or the aforementioned Wii Boxing, games abounded as kids of all ages turned out to win prizes of candy and inflatable baseball bats. Hot dogs off the grill and freshly-popped popcorn rounded the carnival affair.

And fun was indeed had by all ages.

Personally, I lost 100 lempiras in challenging a fourteen-year-old in a stupid parlor trip— and yes, I must admit to being outsmarted (or at least out-shenaniganned). Then I lost successive rounds in Wii Boxing to kids half my age and a third my body-weight. Hey, it’s for the kids, eh?

(I truly am a few years away from being obsolete. A three-year-old— yes, three years of age— corrected me on how to unpause the Wii Sports menu. I might as well retire now while I’m still ahead.)

At the end of the day, the Coconut Tree Carnival was a rousing success. It was such a genuine pleasure to see kids of all social background playing together in lighthearted competition. I am proud of our contribution to the local community and particularly SOL International Foundation— Dave and Brandon, you guys are doing a fantastic job with these children!