Deep Cuba: The Inside Story of an American Oceanographic Expedition

by Bill Belleville

Book Overview

Geography, politics, and other factors have allowed Cuba to preserve the region's most pristine coast and offshore marine environment. Deep Cuba recounts Bill Belleville's month-long journey around... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0820326208
• ISBN13: 9780820326207
• Release Date: April 2004
• Publisher: University of Georgia Press
• Length: 273 Pages
• Weight: 0.89 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.9" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Fidel and the diving bell.

Bill Belleville's Deep Cuba book is part Cousteau adventure tale, part natural history, part cultural history, with a smattering of Hollywood documentary drama. It is enjoyable and engrossing to read- a must for those interested in protecting our fragile environments. Belleville's sensitivities and attention to detail give us greater understanding of the pristine waters and lands of Cuba, a place that seems so far away, yet is in reality right next door. Like many readers, I have grown up during a time when Cuba has been "off-limits." Ironically, this embargo has in many ways protected the environment by keeping masses of American tourists away. How lucky we are to be able to visit this magical place through Belleville's enlightening account.

An adventure in Cuba

Bill Belleville, author of "River of Lakes: A Journey on the St. Johns River," again takes us down to the water to quench our thirst for adventure. In "Deep Cuba," we set sail with him aboard an expedition vessel for a journey that plies the waters of both politics and discovery.Through his poetic telling, the island's previously unexplored waters come to life, populated by everything from mysterious bioluminescent creatures and toothy sharks to the simple souls whose livelihoods come with the tides. We meet a variety of Cubans, among them a harbor master who boards the ship and skillfully guides it to port, two scientists who join the expedition in a rare show of cooperation between Cuba and the U.S., and a group of boys who frolic among the watery mangroves of a distant island during a break from their studies of becoming boat captains. And late in the book, there is Castro himself, who boards the ship with his inquisitive intellect.We witness, too, the dynamics of an expedition driven by filmmaking -- in this case, a documentary for the Discovery Channel, which funded the voyage. Belleville lets his keen observations of the personalities of the expedition ebb and flow through the narrative, and it soon becomes apparent that relations between the filmmakers and scientists are at times as chilly as those between the U.S. and Cuba. We learn first-hand how science can take a back seat to the wants of filmmakers, even on such a rare expedition as this.Throughout the book, there is much high adventure. Belleville descends 2,000 feet under the surface in a mini-sub, and he dives reefs and plunging ledges that teem with fish. In one harrowing chapter, he even loses his way during a night dive in open water.The book is a page-turner, to be sure. But along the way there is much to be learned as Belleville weaves scientific findings and cultural observations seamlessly into the telling. At the very least, this scientific expedition has found a happy marriage in word, if not on film.

Tragi-Funny Tale of Exploration

When the author climbed aboard the research boat hired by a Discovery Channel film crew bound for Cuba, he gained entry to two engrossing stories. One covers the exploration of Cuba's coral reefs, sunken ships, and sharks, whose mysteries are elucidated live-on-location by Discovery's consultant scientists and cultural experts. This story is by turns exotic science, pure travelog, and just plain spooky - expedition members in a submersible find two complete sets of diving gear hundreds of feet below the safe diving range, in an area where divers were known to have disappeared. Belleville's deep dive in the little sub hangs in mid-book like a luminous bubble of science, poetry, and spookiness. The second story is a weird tale of the making of a documentary film. It's unnerving to see the innards of the "documentary" process exposed. For instance, Belleville watches as the camera bypasses scientists who lack sex appeal or sound-bite savvy. Or, although Fidel Castro's visit to the expedition's ship makes great reading, it evidently makes bad vibes in Filmland, and is cut. And Belleville's account of the debate over whether the word "forbidden" should be used in the film title is hilarious. These two narrative lines intertwine to weave a fascinating path around, and even into the throbbing and troubled heart of - gasp! - the forbidden island of Cuba.

This is a really well-told story

The title of this book seems straightforward and explanatory enough. Yet, the content is far more complex, and thankfully, the author is more than up to the task of explaining broad concepts of oceanography, of documentary film making, and the oddball politics that have embargoed Cuba over the last 40 or so years. But more than anything, this is just a really well-told story that takes the reader along on an expedition to a place that few Americans have ever seen. Belleville seems to have a lot of experience as a scuba diver before this trip, and his acumen as an 'underwater naturalist' is much appreciated by this reader. So too is his exacting descriptions of daily expeditionary life---which at time is hilarious, enlightening, dangerous, and at times downright ironic. The chapter describing Castro's visit when the expedition is in Havana is refreshingly candid---and quite a hoot, as well. Belleville knows how to craft a good story, and has the stylistic tools to do it.Thematically, the author tries very hard to make a solid case for the need for more funding for ocean research---as well as for diplomatic relations that will finally let the leaders of the U.S. and Cuba manage their regional waters under one umbrella. As an educator specializing in marine sciences, I think the ecological connection between our country and Cuba is one of the great under-reported stories of our time. My deepest gratitude to Belleville for having the fortitude to tell it---and to tell it with great style.

Unspoiled Cuba

Bill Belleville, environmental journalist, diver and storyteller pulls us out of our easy chairs and transports us to the forbidden waters of Cuba on board the marine discovery ship Seward Johnson.Leading American marine biologists were invited by The Discovery Channel to accompany their documentary film-makers for a rare look at the undisturbed bio-diversity of the Cuban coast and adjoining waters. Belleville, who had participated in a similar voyage to the Galapagos was invited along to transmit the adventure to The Discovery Channel's web site. Tension between the scientists and film-makers was pervasive throughout the month-long voyage. Good film-making (i.e. sunken treasure and toothy barracudas)and good scientific study (i.e. the discovery of new life forms)are not necessarily consistent. Competition for use of the deep-diving minisub, Johnson Sea-Link was intense. Sadly, more often than not the film-makers favored by The Discovery Channel won out over the scientists.Belleville rides the sub twice, and takes us along in that chilly, cramped, dangerous machine into the mezmerizing depths of tropical reefs and underwater mountain ranges. We also visit the benighted island, the haunts of Hemingway and San Juan Hill. We steam past the Bay of Pigs. We meet the people: the woman who escapes poverty by offering herself to the visitors; the proud fishermen whose love of Cuba is palpable; and El Jefe, himself who boards the boat and shares his profound knowledge of his beloved Cuba with the scientists. A good tale--well written.