72 / 116
70
|
FALL 2016
out. Fishing was discouraged even before the area was
officially a marine preserve.
According to the group EcoWatch, which interviewed
Castro on the subject in 2014, he deemed marine
conservation to be important for Cuba. “Castro told
us that he had fished and dived the extraordinary reef
(Jardines de la Reina) over its entire 60-mile length.…
He also told us about his personal evolution as an
environmentalist. He began as an avid marlin fisherman
and spearfisherman who slaughtered many marine
species on the reef, assuming the oceans were infinite
and could never be depleted, … then he met with marine
conservationist Jacques Cousteau. That meeting helped
transform Castro into a committed environmentalist. He
has committed to preserve 25 percent of Cuba’s waters
from extractive fishing as marine preserves, while the U.S.
lags, preserving less than 2 percent of our coastal waters.”
In 1996 the Gardens of the Queen officially became a
marine preserve — one of the largest in the Caribbean.
This is significant in many ways; it goes far beyond the
dive tourism we enjoyed for a week this past July. As the
New York Times
observed in an article on July 14, 2015,
the U.S. and Cuba are two countries whose ecosystems
are closely interconnected, the environmental successes
or missteps of one affecting the health and productivity
of the other.”
“When you have two areas that are 90 miles
away, it’s not only possible but it’s probable that a
considerable number of eggs and larvae are moving
between Cuban and American reefs,” Jake Kritzer,
an ocean and fisheries expert at the Environmental
Defense Fund, told the
New York Times
.
Jorge Angulo-Valdés, a senior scientist at Havana
University’s Center for Marine Research, also
observed, “Our two countries are connected by the
water, and fish and other organisms move freely there.
They don’t need a visa to come down or go up.”
A study by marine biologist Fabián Pina Amargós,
director of Cuba’s Center for Coastal Ecosystem
Research, found that fish populations have increased
30 percent since the preserve was established, and
shark populations are 10 times greater within the
protected zone than in the waters outside.
Now that I’ve visited the Gardens of the Queen I
can revise my assessment of Cuba diving. With an
impressive density of marine life and pristine coral
reefs, “overwhelmed” is more like it.
THE TRAVEL
We traveled to Cuba on a People to People International
program. Even though diplomatic relations are thawing
and commercial flights from the U.S. to Cuba resumed
Aug. 31, 2016, travel to Cuba is not without regulation.
Simple tourism is still prohibited by statute, but there are
12 categories of authorized travel, including journalistic
activity, public performances or sports competitions,
professional research and meetings, humanitarian
projects and educational activities.
As part of our program we visited Havana, which
was worth the trip if for no other reason than to see
the people, the architecture and the cars from 1950s
Detroit that still rule the roads. Having grown up in
an era when as a child I could name every car on the
road, whether DeSoto, Studebaker, Ford, Plymouth
or Chevrolet, Havana was astonishing. To the endless
fascination of American tourists of a certain age, the
city was filled with dream cars from the days before
I could drive. The Baby Boomers on our bus kept
shouting out “’57 Bel Air,” “’58 T-Bird,” “’52 Buick,”
“’56 Fairlane!” My 23-year-old daughter didn’t share
our enthusiasm for old cars, but even she knew this
was a situation unique in the world — a function
of five decades of embargo that forced Cubans to
be resourceful and respectful of their cars. There
was much to appreciate about Havana; I don’t think
you could visit and not be impressed by the culture,
history and fine dining.
The Jardines de la Reina are a group of 250 coral
and mangrove islands 60 miles offshore, so factoring
in our travel time from Havana and the boat ride to
the dive sites, the first day would be fully dedicated
to travel. Once we joined our liveaboard we quickly
shoved off to sea, enjoying lunch and what was to
become our collective passion for the week: mojitos
— concoctions of white rum, lime juice, sugar, soda
water and crushed mint. We were happy to indulge in
a drink or three, as we wouldn’t be diving that day.
GARDENS OF THE QUEEN
Checkout dives are often done at some crappy reef
where nothing can be harmed by an errant fin stroke
or poor buoyancy control. With that in mind I was
pleasantly surprised to see massive and pristine pillar
corals punctuating the seafloor at
Boca de Anclitas
.
A friendly queen angel darted between the spires of
this giant coral colony, making for a great photo op
with my daughter as model. A pair of Nassau grouper
kept nudging ever nearer my housing’s dome port.
Whether they were seeing themselves in the reflection
or had targeted me as a potential fish-feeder, I wasn’t
quite sure. Soon after our first giant stride it became
clear that these fish did not associate divers with