So... It has taken me almost two months to create a plan and contact people to carry out the plan. Now it comes time to implement the plan and that seems to be where the problems occur. CODOPESCA doesn't have the data that I need. Kelvin can only come at the very end of July to teach the information session. Darien's not going to be here. Henry might be here but still has to do physical therapy. I'm going on vacation for a week immediately after, which makes getting the houses in the water difficult. Fantastic.
In the DR, the roads are really bad. When ESSEG performed a survey on what the community wanted the most, instead of receiving the answer of clean water or reliable electricity, which is what they thought they would answer, they said better roads. Miches was paved a few years ago and the road to the capital is paved but the road that runs west to east is not paved and are full of pot holes. Sometimes boys instead of begging fill in the potholes and receive money from passing drivers because the government rarely maintains the roads. The roads in cities and when passing through small towns have speed bumps that are called policias acostados, or sleeping policemen. This is a fitting name for them because it seems like many of the policemen would be only useful for a speed bump. Signs and speed limits also don't really work in the DR either and perhaps the name for speed bumps makes slowing down more enjoyable because they are running over policemen.
My project is like a car that has reached the speed limit but has to slow down because of numerous policias acostados. This analogy is also fitting because the data that I'm collecting for my project is illegal. All of the lobster fishing methods being used by the fishermen in Miches are illegal in one way or another. It's illegal to fish at night, to use a compressor, to use a gancho or harpoon, and fishermen leave lobsters in their nasas during the fishing ban. Illegal fishing isn't monitored because the policemen are sleeping. I went to go collect data on lobster fishing during the day last week because they said that illegal fishing for lobster in los Mameyes has been almost non-existent since the ministry of the environment office moved in down the street, but I don't believe it and want to see for myself. We recently learned that the CODOPESCA representative that we had been working with at los Mameyes (Juan) had been moved from los Mameyes to one of the communities along the river called la Yeguada because that community was having a lot of problems. The la Yeguada representative (Angel) was now going to work in los Mameyes. Wilman and I went to los Mameyes to collect data at 1 like we planned but there weren´t any CODOPESCA representatives there. Carlos, the head of CODOPESCA in Miches, was sick and Juan and Angel were nowhere to be found. We went back to Wilman´s to have lunch after waiting a half an hour and Juan pulled up in our moto and told us that Angel hadn´t shown up for training all week and he didn´t know where he was. It´s going to be interesting working with him I´m guessing.
Also, I need to start collecting data on the size and weight of the lobsters being brought in because although CODOPESCA collects data on the weight of the lobsters, the method, and the time spent at sea, they do not collect data on species of lobster collected (there are three) or, the size of the lobsters, and the number of lobsters. This makes all of their data useless for my project. By collecting more data, I am trying to determine what percentage of those are of which species and then maybe we can compare the pounds yielded from the lobster houses to the pounds from other methods. It still does not have the most important information, which is the size of the lobsters, which would determine if the lobsters have been legally fished or not and will be impossible to determine.
To collect data at night, I would have to bring along Arias, who is the law enforcer that was assigned to help our project, because it would be unsafe to go by myself or even just with Wilman. I would have to tell him not to enforce the law because the fishermen are using air compressors, which are illegal, and during the veda, because you aren´t allowed to collect lobsters during this time, and you aren´t allowed to fish at night. Additionally, the lobsters caught could be undersized or have eggs. This means they could have four charges against them! It´s going to be an interesting night.
Oh ya, and yesterday I brought my computer to Paul and Diane´s dive shop to download some of their movies after we went diving but when we came back we found that their house had been flooded with two and a half feet of water and my laptop had been submerged. Luckily, one of the engineers at Ceyba Park is drying it and I´m crossing my fingers that it will continue to work. This will add to my other two electronic breakdowns, which includes my headlamp, which was chewed by the dog, and my camera, which has ceased to function due to the humidity.
Besides all this, I´ve been having a good time here. I had a fantastic birthday on the beach and actually went out dancing! The lobster houses are going to be built next week and I´ve been improving my Spanish. Yesterday I went diving for the first time outside of New Hampshire and it was amazing! I love being underwater, it makes me feel so calm. I´m going out again this afternoon with Paul and Diane to help distract them from the fact that their house got flooded yesterday. This country is so full of craziness but I´m meeting interesting people and I´m never bored, that´s for sure. : )
To collect data at night, I would have to bring along Arias, who is the law enforcer that was assigned to help our project, because it would be unsafe to go by myself or even just with Wilman. I would have to tell him not to enforce the law because the fishermen are using air compressors, which are illegal, and during the veda, because you aren´t allowed to collect lobsters during this time, and you aren´t allowed to fish at night. Additionally, the lobsters caught could be undersized or have eggs. This means they could have four charges against them! It´s going to be an interesting night.
Oh ya, and yesterday I brought my computer to Paul and Diane´s dive shop to download some of their movies after we went diving but when we came back we found that their house had been flooded with two and a half feet of water and my laptop had been submerged. Luckily, one of the engineers at Ceyba Park is drying it and I´m crossing my fingers that it will continue to work. This will add to my other two electronic breakdowns, which includes my headlamp, which was chewed by the dog, and my camera, which has ceased to function due to the humidity.
Besides all this, I´ve been having a good time here. I had a fantastic birthday on the beach and actually went out dancing! The lobster houses are going to be built next week and I´ve been improving my Spanish. Yesterday I went diving for the first time outside of New Hampshire and it was amazing! I love being underwater, it makes me feel so calm. I´m going out again this afternoon with Paul and Diane to help distract them from the fact that their house got flooded yesterday. This country is so full of craziness but I´m meeting interesting people and I´m never bored, that´s for sure. : )
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