September 8, 2014 — Ernest Hemingway's love of the sea and eye for detail have scientists hoping that a visit to Cuba by the author's grandsons will open access to his fishing logs, which may be a treasure trove of information about the state of deep-water species before they were diminished by overfishing.
Patrick and John Hemingway launched a five-day mission to the island Monday intent on helping improve U.S.-Cuba ties and gaining permission for researchers to study the aging documents.
Traveling with a team of U.S. marine scientists, the two men sailed a massive, gleaming white sport-fishing yacht to the seaside village that inspired their grandfather's Pulitzer-winning "Old Man and the Sea."
An honor guard of aging local fishing boats and a crowd of hundreds cheered the Hemingways as they gathered around a bust honoring their grandfather.
"He was a fisherman," Patrick Hemingway said. He looked at the local men who welcomed him, then added: "He considered them his brothers."
Scientists are optimistic the trip could allow them to review Hemingway's fishing logs, which could help them piece together details about the Florida Strait's deep-sea fish populations over the last 75 years. Such information could improve efforts to protect the species that sustain Cojimar.
Researchers gathered little data in the years before industrial fishing devastated populations of tuna and other highly desired big species in the second half of the last century. That leaves sport fishermen's records – typically containing details of the numbers of fish caught, the location of the catch and weight of the fish – as some of the only resources for marine scientists seeking a benchmark to measure population declines.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at WTEN