Cuba Is An Island Without Fish
HAVANA TIMES – Cuba, the largest island in the Caribbean, is surrounded by a deep blue ocean that used to be overflowing with life. In the decades of the 50s and 60s the fishing industry prospered: lobsters, red snappers, bass and sharks filled the nets. Fresh fish was never missing from the Cuban table. There was massive exports, industrial ships, and even a fishing fleet that came to be one of the most important in the region. But the sea that once upon a time fed us, is only a memory today.
The Cuban fishing industry began its decline in the nineties, with the fall of the Soviet Union. Without fuel, without spare parts for repairs, and without new nets, industrial fishing collapsed. The problem wasn’t only the scarce resources, but also the fact that decades of overexploitation had exhausted the schools of fish. So the government prioritized the export of lobster and shrimp to bring in foreign currency, while everyday Cubans watched fish disappear from their plates.
In 2018, they announced the definitive closure of the State-run Industrial Fishing Company – already a shadow of what it once had been. The rusted boats in the docks now serve as monuments to their past glory.
If you want fish in Havana today, you don’t go to a State fish store (which are nearly non-existent), but directly to the Malecon sea wall, where clandestine fishermen and women sell their catches at prices that only the tourists or Cubans receiving outside remittances can pay. The sea that once fed everyone, now only nourishes those who have money.
The fishermen go out in rickety boats, risking the waves and the Coast Guard, which pursues them for selling without a permit. Whereas they used to fish to eat, they now fish to survive.
The curse of water with no fish
Cubans grew up hearing that they lived on an island blessed by the sea. But now, that same sea seems cursed: the fish have gone away, as if they’d emigrated.
Nutritionists speak of Omega-3, of phosphorus, of proteins, but for Cubans those nutrients are a luxury. Beef is a dream, chicken is becoming scarce, and fish? – fish is something only our grandparents recall.
In the coastal towns, people look out on the empty horizon and murmur: “There’s nothing left here anymore.” Pirate vessels from other countries loot the little that remains in Cuban waters.
An island of Corsairs with no booty
Cuba was once the land of Corsairs and pirates, but now the only looters are time and carelessness. We live surrounded by water, with hunger for the sea. The fish that used to be right are today a privilege. While tourists eat lobster in Varadero, Cubans learn once again to live without what the sea no longer gives them.
We’re an island without fish. Today, the sea now only reminds us of what we lost.