October 20, 2014 — It might seem odd: Cuban fisheries managers and scientists seated around a table in this fabled but faded Cape Cod fishing port, sharing their stories of managing crocodiles, manatees and reef fish while trying to absorb the successes and failures of the New England fisheries.
But, as Elisa Garcia, Cuba's director of fishing regulations and science put it, there is universality to the problems nations encounter in managing fish stocks.
"We all gain from the exchange and the experience of my colleagues from the United States," Garcia said through a translator during a break in a conference last week featuring fisheries experts from Cuba, the United States and Mexico, at the Center for Coastal Studies. "We are talking about different places and species but the problems are similar," she added.
The Environmental Defense Fund, a national and international environmental advocacy organization, sponsored the Provincetown conference as one of five meetings with international fishery experts they hold each year that are intended to address issues in Cuban fisheries management, where the EDF has been working for almost 15 years. The United States, Mexico and Cuba have been working together, both through official and unofficial channels, on Gulf of Mexico fisheries issues and sustainable fishing practices.
EDF staffers believe the New England experience, both positive and negative, could be valuable for the Cubans. As lifting the 54-year-old U.S. embargo of Cuba is hotly debated, and some say imminent, Provincetown is an example of how the pressure from tourism and development can affect fishing's shoreside facilities such as piers, supply shops and processing plants.
"We learn from each country, even if the fishery is different," said Stuart Fulton, an oceanographer from Great Britain, working on marine conservation with a Mexican environmental organization.
Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times