A Living Time Machine: Cuba’s Spectacular Ocean Ecosystems and the Hope They Offer the World
Dr. Guggenheim directs Cuba Conservancy, an Ocean Doctor Program, and is in his 14th year leading research and conservation efforts in Cuba, a joint effort with Cuba’s Center for Coastal Ecosystem Research and the University of Havana’s Center for Marine Research. His work was recently featured on 60 Minutes with Anderson Cooper, on the PBS Nature series and on NPR.
In a world of corals dead and dying, Cuba’s marine ecosystems are spectacularly healthy, a Jurassic Park-like experience teeming with endangered species seldom seen elsewhere in the Caribbean, including bountiful sharks and grouper. We visit Gardens of the Queen, named by Christopher Columbus 500 years ago to honor Spain’s Queen Isabella — truly a living time machine — and explore why this area is so healthy and what the implications are for ocean ecosystems around the world. Gardens of the Queen is Cuba’s first marine protected area and the Caribbean’s largest.
Dr. Guggenheim also presents Ocean Doctor’s new Cuba Travel Program which, for the first time, is bringing divers from the U.S. to Cuba legally as part of a people-to-people educational program, to dive in the Gardens of the Queen and meet the Cuban scientists and conservation professionals who are working to protect it.
Learn more:
Ocean Doctor’s Cuba Conservancy Program: https://oceandoctor.org/cuba
Ocean Doctor’s Cuba Travel Program: https://oceandoctor.org/gardens
