DIVING CAYO LARGO CUBA 2023

Cayo Largo del Sur is a small resort island off Cuba’s southern coast. This small island belonging to Cuba, in the Caribbean Sea, is no more than 16 miles long and 1.9 miles wide. It’s known for its long, sandy beaches, including Playa Sirena, Playa Los Cocos, Playa Blanca and Playa Lindarena. Sea turtles lay their eggs on PlayaTortuga.
Cayo Largo is a prime location for scuba diving. Thanks to extraordinary conservation measures, the CayoLargo marine reserve is often considered one of Cuba's best places for scuba diving. The area is mainly known for the quality and diversity of its dive sites.
I have been diving in Cuba many times in the Cayo Coco, Holguin and other places, but dive sites and the sea life are in much better shape than the offshore of mainland Cuba.
The island's remoteness, its tiny population, no commercial fishing and no spear running contribute to the abundance of the seal life.
In addition, Cuba has protected these pristine areas as National Marine Parks. No commercial fishing is allowed other than for lobster. The only company, Avalon, runs an exclusive fishing operation at Cayo Largo since 2008 and primarily offers to fly fishing flats and fishing for bonefish, tarpon and permits.
We could observe many large fish, like giant groupers & snappers-also an abundance of reef fish with many shoals of school masters and other grounds. Giant packsofJacks and many barracudas.
I was pleasantly surprised by many reef sharks following us closely during almost every dive. I have not yet seen such a healthy population of them at any other dive site I could visit on the mainland of Cuba. Soon discovered that the sharks were waiting for a meal.
We all know the big problem created by the Lionfish invading the Caribbean sea and depleting the reef fish population. This fish has not yet the natural predator in that area.
So local divers are hunting the lionfish with a specially designed spear gun and feeding them to the sharks and giant groupers, hoping that over time those large predators will develop a natural appetite for those unwanted fish and will keep their population in check!
I hope that this will bring balance to the reef!
Feeding sharks and other large fish serves two essential matters.
Firstly, allow for the natural way of disposing of fish parts from the hotels and restaurants, which otherwise would be disposed of at the landfill, causing an environmental hazard. Secondly, regular feeding attracts large fish to stay in the same area, a great attraction for divers. I must admit, I was keeping a safe distance from the feeding frenzy, which lasted less than a minute or so! And many fish left" empty-handed."
But even from a distance, the action was red hot!
Divers can easily book excursions from the tour desks at their hotel with transfer to and from the Dive Center included. The cost for single dive is $40 US. Courses are also available. The dive center is located at the Marina Marlin Cayo Largo, in the pueblo Isla del Sol, about 8-10 km from the all-inclusive resorts (except for hotel VillaMarinera which is located next to the marina).
Cubans are masters of improvisation. With no tools and with no spare parts can fix a problem that in other places would be a major one. We can learn a lot from them!
Another Lionfish will be fed to sharks, still learning how to kill them on their own to keep a balance on the reef.
In Florida, where the reef shark population is almost gone, all reefs are overpowered with thousands of Lionfish. Divers are hunting them and trying to educate people to eat this fish, which supposedly has delicious white meat! I guess reef sharks are replaced by "human sharks."
Smaller fish like snappers are slowly building an interest in Lionfish hunting too. But in this case, the size of the lionfish and poison spikes are a big problem.
I hope this natural beauty of pristine reefs will survive thanks to conservation efforts.
It was my first diving trip to Cayo Largo, but I know now that it will not be the last one!
Safety in numbers! Many fish will stay in a large pack for safety reasons. It is much easier for the predator to hunt single fish than a fish swimming in a large group. A large group of fish, like sardines, mullets, and small snapper, which large predator fish could eat, are called a shoal.
A large predatorial group of fish is called a school.
Happy diving!