Cuba is home to (by far) the healthiest Caribbean reef I have ever encountered: Jardines de la Reina ('Gardens of the Queen'). If you ask an older diver, there's a good chance they'll say that "this is what the Florida keys used to look like 50 years ago"
And there is a very good reason for it. Cuba, cut off from global trade was forced to rely on its own natural resources. Castro was (apparently) an avid spearfisherman that recognized that the country would need strict fisheries management and declared the Jardines de la Reina a no- take zone. In 1996 the area became the largest marine reserve in the Caribbean and has since remained protected. In our opinion, there is no single better example of the efficacy of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs or no- take zone) than Jardines de la Reina.
14 апр 2020
