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.
When i was there in last jan. fish was the only meat i could afford at about 400 to 500 peso per lb. as a tourist . In many countries they put fuel for fishing boats ahead of fuel for hotels but not in Cuba
Very sad. It wasn’t the fall of the Soviet Union what lead to the destruction of the fishing industry…that’s just the coverage that the government used to steal from their own people.
It has happened for decades, we just had to look at the news as recent as last month were Cuban enterprises like Gaviota, etc shows the billions of dollars in their own coffers while the Cuban people are starving. Horrible.
This is really sad
So what your telling me is cuba is the next Haiti? Same scenario
It’s ridiculous that such restrictions apply to private fisherman trying to sell their catch when the state can’t provide.
Bloody nonsense.
RIP
Thanks to the continued USA embargo Cuba is on the brink of collapse enough of this crime against the Cuban people
Not one word about the punitive and inhumane US blockade that has crippled Cuba’s fishing industry along with many other sectors of its economy. But no surprise with the HT!
It breaks my heart. The family had a summer house at the beach of La Boca, Camaguey. The whole family shared the big rustic house. In the early morning relatives would go out in the old family sailboat and bring home Pargo de lo Alto and other delicacies of the sea. As a child I would get sick of eating so much seafood, so plentIful it was. in the 50s, yellowtails were easily four feet long…It grieves me that that simple old world is gone. What kind of world are we leaving behind?. Who is really to blame?. Is it greed?
Cuba should join Canada, ño more bullshit from States, no more embargo,
Cuba now does have fish due to the fact that there has been limited fishing for awhile (not sure how many years) plus some government regs…etc…
Cuba is not a country, it is a concentration camp. Everybody is a slave owned by the Castro regime.
I think it’s a dam shame what is happening in Cuba.
We enter wars we have no right to be involved in and yet we stand by and let the beautiful people of Cuba suffer.
We should be fighting to save both the people and their beautiful island.
By using scientific method, the Cuban government knows how to boost its5 fishing industry, as well, the cubans should not overfishing.
It is unclear to me from this article if fish stock are/have come back…
How very saddened we are to learn of this. In other parts of the world we know of overfishing, of course, and here in Canada we had a moratorium on cod for many years. But it seemed only the fishermen were truly aware, as the rest of the country dined on other species and imported cod. Today the cod fishery seems to have recovered, we truly hope the same for Cuba!