The central north coast of Cuba is one of the most productive island platforms in the country, which has led to the emergence of fishing communities throughout its length. These communities, from the 60s acquired a great power extractive, manifested in better boats, fishing gear and institutional organization. To the extractive capacity of industrial fishing are added the sports and subsistence catches.

It was common practice to fish at the time and place of fish spawning, which is known in Cuba as "racing". The most recurrent place was the so-called "fishing boat" of Los Caimanes, a place where nine species of snappers and grouper are spawned.

Such a number of species spawning in the same place makes it the most diverse spawning site in Cuba, matched by one in Belize, in the continental Caribbean.

The protection of this spawning site, in addition to other important values of marine biodiversity, led to the creation of the Los Caimanes National Park which, according to Cuban law, prohibits fishing and any other extractive activity.

The protection of the place is not only important for the recruitment of juveniles in the north coast of Cuba, studies indicate that the larvae born in Los Caimanes reach almost the entire north coast of Cuba, the Bahamas and part of the southeast coast of the EE . That's why the park has as its slogan "... where the fish are born".

Although there is a fishing ban, communities continue to fish stealthily in order to meet their economic and spiritual needs. On the assumption that illegality (and with it damage to biodiversity) will continue as long as those needs are not met.

The Small Grants Program of the Global Environment Facility (SGP-GEF), the Punta Alegre Fishing Community in the central province of Ciego de vila and the Administration of the Caimanes National Park of the Center for Environmental Studies of Villa Clara, are working on the development of alternatives Economic development in the surrounding communities, which will help to reduce threats to this important marine ecosystem.

The alternatives must satisfy: be environmentally friendly, develop in the sea and be economically profitable.

To date, the proposals for alternatives to be developed are: cultivation of sea sponges, cultivation of mangrove oysters and cultivation of tilapia mono sex in sea water; Will begin in the next months the culture of agarfitas algae using the experience developed by projects of the SGP - GEF in Belize.

The proposed alternatives contribute to the increase of families' financial capacity, the incorporation of women into the productive life and the food security of the communities, reducing the fishing pressure within this valuable ecosystem in the basin of the Greater Caribbean.

There are experiences in Florida, with the same species, that restoration of abundance can occur between three and six years from the cessation of fishing pressure in spawning.