Originally published on Forbes.com
An encounter on the Florida Keys flats. Photo by Tom Rosenbauer
On a recent evening in Manhattan, supporters of the conservation group, the Bonefish & Tarpon Trust (BTT), gathered together at an Upper East Side club that preferred to remain unnamed. Much of the talk at the fundraiser was about a formerly clandestine subject in its own right: Cuba and the fishing opportunities that may open up sooner rather than later thanks to President Obama’s call for normalizing the relations between the United States and its former hemispheric foe. To many anglers—and particularly to those who chase bonefish, tarpon and permit, which happen to be the three species that the BTT strives to protect—Cuba appears to be the “last, best place,” the frontier that represents some sort of terminus for flyfishing’s own form of manifest destiny.
That frontier, though, may be more connected to the rest of the Western Hemisphere’s flats fisheries than previously realized. That should come as no real surprise: The relationship between the U.S. and Cuba has always been a complicated and intertwined one.
