Travel

A NEW GLIMPSE AT A RARE & BEAUTIFUL FISH PARADISE NOW

Gardens of the Queen by Noel Lopez Fernandez Courtesy of Environmental Defense Fund.

by Noel Lopez Fernandez, Courtesy of Environmental Defense Fund. Gardens of the Queen.

CUBA

Cuba -- while its people live in poverty, its fish live richly in its exceptionally pristine surrounding waters.

Coral reefs have been in major global decline due to pollution, climate change, tourism, overfishing, and other destructive human interventions. But thousands of miles of reefs around Cuba are now proving to be healthier than others around the world.

Cuba’s reef system is the only one in the world believed to still have 100% biodiversity, 100% coral cover, and a complete range of top-of-the-food-chain predators, like grouper and sharks.

Cuban waters hold one of the largest and healthiest colonies of Acropora palmata (Elkhorn coral), an important reef-building coral that has been severely threatened in other oceans.

It wasn’t always this way. Fishing boats and bottom trawlers once wiped out most of Cuba’s fish population and reefs. But the reefs began to recover after the Soviets pulled out of the country in 1991, when Cuba could no longer afford fertilizers and pesticides -- they were forced to return to organic farming, which has kept destructive pollutants from draining into the sea.

The icy relations between Cuba and the US, since their diplomatic break in 1961, ironically, have helped as well, as the situation served to keep destructive development and tourism from negatively impacting the marine ecosystem.

In 1997, the Cuban government banned aquarium trade and commercial fishing here, and established a giant marine reserve. They also put big restrictions on the numbers of divers allowed in. The Cuban National Center for Protected Areas has set an ambitious target of designating 25% of their coastal waters as Marine Protected Areas.

The Environmental Defense Fund is one of the few U.S. organizations that has been proactive so far. They helped to create Cuba’s massive network of more than 100 marine protected areas, the largest in the Caribbean, and have secured numerous visas for exchanges between Cuban and U.S. scientists.

Scientists are hoping that Cuba’s healthy reefs can provide valuable insights into coral reef conservation. They have been studying Cuba’s Jardines de la Reina (aka or the Queen’s Gardens), a 1,100-square-mile marine reserve, finding many intact reefs, mangroves and seagrass beds, loaded with Beautiful Fish.

Now, relations between the Cuba and the Western world are thawing. And a new tidal wave of tourism is expected to hit, with potentially devastating effects on the reefs, unless strategic measures are taken to protect them.

Reef Libre: Cuba - The Last, Best Reefs in the World, a new book and documentary film by Robert Wintner (aka Snorkel Bob), documents the current beauty with hundreds of still photos and a compelling narrative about Cuba’s reefs and the fish that live among them.

Wintner’s book and film are especially important now, before the impending new flood of tourism puts the reefs at risk.

It took Wintner 25 dives, just off the coast of Havana as well as in the Jardins area, about 70 miles off of the country’s southern coast, to capture all of his photos and video. They offer an unparalleled view.

Wintner is ambivalent about promoting Cuba’s reef riches. On one hand he wants to share the beauty, on the other hand, he is worried that this beauty will be compromised by overzealous development.

Beautiful fish and ocean life has been an obsession of Wintner’s since he was a child, when his father bought him a $2 novelty snorkel mask. He grew up to become an avid scuba diver, owner of Hawaii-based Snorkel Bob’s dive shops, and marine conservationist, based in Hawaii. He is also a strong opponent to the aquarium industry.

Wintner is Executive Director of the Snorkel Bob Foundation and an active member of Hawaii’s conservation community. He is also heavily committed to protecting Hawaii’s ocean ecosystems.

Printed on aluminum, fine-art archival paper, or canvas, Wintner’s Beautiful Fish photos are available for purchase here. Every fish tells a story, and those stories accompany the shots. Your purchases will help to support Wintner’s campaigns to ban the aquarium trade and marine wildlife trafficking for the pet trade worldwide.

Wintner is also a fiction writer. His novel, In a Sweet Magnolia Time, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Other novels include Toucan Whisper, Toucan Sing, Whirlaway, The Modern Outlaws, and Some Fishes I Have Known.

Enter your own images and ideas about Beautiful Fish in this week’s creative Photo Competition. Open for entries now until 11:59 p.m. PT on 03.07.15. If you are reading this after that date, check out the current BN Creative Competition, and enter!

IMAGE CREDITS:

Photo: by Noel Lopez Fernandez, Courtesy of Environmental Defense Fund. Gardens of the Queen.
Photo: by Robert Wintner. Green Eel. Jardines de la Reina, Cuba.
Photo: by Robert Wintner. Large Grouper. Jardines de la Reina, Cuba.
Photo: by Ian Shive. Elkhorn Coral.
Photo: by Robert Wintner. Scarback shark. Jardines de la Reina, Cuba.
Photo: by Robert Wintner. Mangrove at Nightfall. Jardines de la Reina, Cuba.
Photo: by Craig Searle & Carolyn Percy-Searle, Courtesy of Travel 2 the Caribbean blog.
Image: Courtesy of Environmental Defense Fund. Giant Grouper.
Photo: by David Doubilet. Courtesy of National Geographic. Giant Grouper.
Photo: by Noel Lopez Fernandez Courtesy of Environmental Defense Fund. Gardens of the Queen.
Image: Courtesy of Taylor Trade Publishing. Reef Libre.
Photo: by Robert Wintner. Mature Blue Tang. Jardines de la Reina, Cuba.
Image: by Robert Wintner. Reef Libre. Cuba.
Photo: by Robert Wintner. Lionfish. Jardines de la Reina, Cuba.
Photo: by Robert Wintner. Fairy Basslets. Jardines de la Reina, Cuba.
Photo: by Robert Wintner. Sea Turtles. Jardines de la Reina, Cuba.
Photo: by Robert Wintner. Purple Sea Fan. Jardines de la Reina, Cuba.
Photo: by Robert Wintner. Purple Sea Fan. Jardines de la Reina, Cuba.