COVER STORY Two Weeks in Honduras From CoCo View to Plantation Beach Cayos Cochinos, a secluded tropical island designated a bioreserve by the Honduran government, houses the tiny 10-room Plantation Beach Resort. Diving here is big on little stuff - there's lots of good macro - while CoCo View on the island of Roatán is one the few resorts that can boast five dives a day. Check out how our correspondent thought the two stacked up against his previous trips to Honduras - from diving to side trips to the perennial battle with no-see-ums.   Mary's Place Years ago, a beautiful Honduran dive called Mary's Place adorned the pages of dive magazines, but damage from divers negotiating its narrow fissures ultimately led to its closure. Although it's been reopened for a trial period with strict controls on dives, what's the probability of it remaining open to divers long term? Why Divers Die, Part V: Faulty Equipment Faulty equipment from a manufacturer rarely leads to a diver's death. More common is a diver's failure to maintain equipment or assemble gear properly, with new divers being especially prone to error. Find out how incorrectly-worn weight belts are implicated in dive deaths, why divers in trouble are sometimes seen removing their regulators, and the role panic often plays in turning dive hazards into dive fatalities. Get the full story! BC Recall Durapro Systems has recalled nearly 2000 buoyancy compensators sold as the Cirrus, Stratus, Aruba, Slimline, and Resort models after receiving reports of low-pressure power inflator hoses blowing off underwater. Surviving Strong Currents "Have a healthy respect for the ocean" might sound like an innocuous warning, but incidents involving strong currents are serious. While questions remain about whether one diver's lingering injuries were caused by a downcurrent that dragged her group down to about a hundred feet or by the boat's propeller, powerful currents were definitely responsible for another incident near Malpelo which left several divers trapped for days and caused numerous injuries, including broken ribs and an eyeball torn from its socket. What are the best indicators of dangerous currents? And what should you do if you're caught in a downcurrent? A Pain in the Back Recent research indicates that divers' back pain just might come with the territory, and a substantial percentage of cases end up requiring surgery or other serious treatment. Given the fact that water counteracts gravitation, why is back pain such a frequent problem? Are You Paying for Marine Life Harassment? When diving, I do my best to follow a "take only pictures, leave only bubbles" mandate, but not everyone in the dive industry shares my philosophy. In fact, abuse of marine life by guides and divemasters often passes for client entertainment, despite warnings from underwater environmentalists that both divers and marine creatures are losers in the end. And when harassment is condoned by the dive media or establishment, it can be enough to make people question where to draw the line. TWA Flight 800 and DCS The recovery of the wreckage of TWA Flight 800 and the bodies of its victims was a massive underwater effort under strenuous conditions that tallied nearly 4,000 dives, but clear identification of DCS risks helped insure that there were only a handful of cases of DCS or embolism. Find out what researchers think of the hot-water suits used by some TWA divers and how their conclusions might apply to recreational divers who like a hot shower after a cool dive. Diver's Insurance Our March, 1998, evaluation of trip cancellation and interruption insurance prompted some interesting responses from our readers. Learn how U.S. trip cancellation premiums stack up against those charged English divers for comparable coverage and when insurance companies seem to feel that immediate family members aren't really "immediate family members." Crime and the Diver One of our subscribers reports that he's been robbed on each of his last three Caribbean dive trips - on three different islands. Fortunately, there are some precautions you can take when traveling to keep from becoming a victim. Sea Turtle for Supper Borneo Divers pays the local turtle egg collector on the Indonesian island of Sangalaki to leave sea turtle eggs in the sand to hatch instead of digging them up to be sold as aphrodisiacs, but not every dive operation is so forward-looking. Recent reports suggest that, instead of protecting turtle hatchlings, one resort is trapping them to serve as "special" meals to visiting divers. Flotsam & Jetsam Our column of dive news briefs discusses recent scientific evidence about sexually-motivated dolphin fratricide that the generation that cut its teeth on "Flipper" might find hard to take, as well as new reports of hitherto-unknown coral reefs near the Gulf of Aden whose inhabitants differ considerably from those in the nearest known reef communities. Find out about the new underwater video camera that has fishing purists crying foul, the new home of Jacques Cousteau's Calypso, and how the temperature has been increasing right along with the tourism on Grand Cayman.