Cuba’s coral reefs are among the most pristine in the Caribbean. In new and ongoing collaborations, NOAA and Cuban scientists will compare Cuban reefs with nearby U.S. reefs.
There will also be collaborative fisheries and joined oceanographic research. As early as 2015, marine scientists from Cuba went with NOAA fisheries biologists and oceanographers on the NOAA ship Nancy Foster to survey for two months for fish larvae in the coastal waters of Cuba. In part, they were continuing a long-term study of Atlantic bluefin tuna, a valued commercial species and threatened fish. In the continuation of this study in the spring, researchers will help to better the tuna stock assessments for the Gulf of Mexico and western Caribbean.
