Mi Aldea, Mi Langosta Reveals Plight of Fishermen in Atlantic Nicaragua

Jun 16th, 2009 by Jon Posted in Nicaragua News | 1 Comment

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In March 2007 my church team organized an eye glasses clinic at Verbo church in Bluefields, Nicaragua. On the days I helped with the clinic, I chatted with locals as I adjusted their new glasses to fit them. I remember meeting a man who was needing glasses and sunglasses because he spent a lot of time out on the water fishing.

He told me how he fished lobsters and how he would dive down with nothing more than a tube to breath air. He said how dangerous it was and how it was harder to find lobsters now. I wish I remembered more specifics about his story because it made an impression on me, even after all these years.

This is why I was amazed when I heard about a film being made about the lobster fishermen on the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua. The film is called Mi Aldea, Mi Langosta (”My Village, My Lobster“) and brings to light a very important issue to the people of Miskito coast, which has been largely unseen and unheard by the rest of the world.

I suspect the lobsters that have been overfished and harder to find is just part of a larger story in this documentary. The Atlantic coast receives very little support from the national government located in the West - there is very little money for infrastructure, education, and social programs. Combine this with a dying fishery, skyrocketing unemployment, and injured fishermen in desperate need of help and you have the foundation for a moving human story.

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Mi Aldea, Mi Lagosta appears to be filmed around Sandy Bay (a 3 hour panga boat ride north of Bluefields) and Puerto Cabezas in the RAAN. The documentary is directed by Joshua Wolff, and produced by Bil Yoelin, Chris Vitale, and Brad Allgood.

I hope to report more on the progress of this film in the future as I see this as a very important story that needs to be told to the world.

You can find out more about this film by visiting the production company’s website or by visiting their Facbook group: