"We risk our lives at sea and are paid a pittance": the other side of fishing in Cuba

In today's Cuba, the sea is no longer a symbol of freedom or greatness, as it was for the old Santiago in the novel The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway.

For Cuban fishermen, the sea has become a stage of daily struggle, where they face not only the force of the waves but also that of the State, which controls each of their catches.

Legally required to deliver the majority of their catch to the State, many fishermen report that they must wait months to receive payments that barely cover basic needs, reported Cubanet.

Several fishermen from the province of Cienfuegos reported to that independent media outlet that low wages, delays in payment, and fear of fines or confiscations are part of a cycle that keeps them trapped in precarious conditions.

“The life of a fisherman is hard; it is harsh. From all the struggles I faced, from everything I caught, I have nothing”, recounts Modesto, a retired fisherman from Cienfuegos.

“They gave me a pension of 1,543 pesos after more than 50 years at sea. Since I was 13, I have been going out to sea. In a biajaiba run, we delivered 150,000 tons in 15 days, and I risked my life among sharks weighing 3,000 to 4,000 pounds. That hurts.”, he stated, on the verge of tears.

Like Modesto, thousands of fishermen today face a reality that is far from heroic.

Their boats are aging, the engines fail, and gasoline—when they can find it—costs more than what they earn in a day's work. If they try to sell part of their catch on their own, state inspectors can impose hefty fines or even confiscate their boats.

Between 2023 and 2024, Cuban authorities sanctioned thousands of fishermen and seized over 87 tons of seafood products, in addition to imposing fines exceeding 7 million pesos, according to official data.

“We deliver the fish and wait two or three months for payment,” comments another fisherman from Cienfuegos.

In the country's docks, where the nets dry in the sun and the boats slowly rust, the men of the sea continue to dream of a fair day, of fishing again for themselves.

Meanwhile, Cubans are also not seeing fish on their tables. The government justifies the low production with the supposed "depletion of the seas surrounding the island."

In 2023, Mydalis Naranjo Blanco, the Deputy Minister of Food Industry, stated on the official program Mesa Redonda that the lack of fish in stores was due to the shortage of fish in the waters of Cuba.

It was also reported that the lobster is fleeing from the seas of Cuba, which many see as merely a strategy by the regime to continue exporting lobster under the radar.