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The Bay of Pigs ( es, Bahía de los Cochinos) is an
inlet An inlet is a (usually long and narrow) indentation of a shoreline, such as a small arm, bay, sound, fjord, lagoon or marsh, that leads to an enclosed larger body of water such as a lake, estuary, gulf or marginal sea. Overview In marine ...
of the
Gulf of Cazones Gulf of Cazones () is a large gulf in southern Cuba. It is located at the south by the provinces of Matanzas and Cienfuegos, between the northeast edge of the Jardinillos Bank on the south, and Piedras and other cays and reefs on the north. It is ...
located on the southern coast of
Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribb ...
. By 1910, it was included in
Santa Clara Province Santa Clara (also known as Las Villas after 1940) was a historical province of Cuba and its capital was Santa Clara. After 1976, its territory was divided into the modern Cuban provinces of Villa Clara, Cienfuegos and Sancti Spíritus Sanct ...
, and then instead to Las Villas Province by 1961, but in 1976, it was reassigned to
Matanzas Province Matanzas () is one of the provinces of Cuba. Major towns in the province include Cárdenas, Colón, Jovellanos and the capital of the same name, Matanzas. The resort town of Varadero is also located in this province. Among Cuban provinces, M ...
, when the original six provinces of Cuba were re-organized into 14 new
Provinces of Cuba Administratively, Cuba is divided into 15 provinces and one special municipality (the Isla de la Juventud). The last modification was approved in August 2010 (by the Cuban National Assembly), splitting Havana province into two new provinces: Ar ...
. The bay is historically important for the failed
Bay of Pigs Invasion The Bay of Pigs Invasion (, sometimes called ''Invasión de Playa Girón'' or ''Batalla de Playa Girón'' after the Playa Girón) was a failed military landing operation on the southwestern coast of Cuba in 1961 by Cuban exiles, covertly fin ...
of 1961. The area is a site known for its diving, with an abundance of marine fauna, e.g. 30 species of sponges belonging to 19 families and 21 genera,Caballero et al., 2009, p.95 to be found in the bay.


Etymology

In
Cuban Spanish Cuban Spanish is the variety of the Spanish language as it is spoken in Cuba. As a Caribbean variety of Spanish, Cuban Spanish shares a number of features with nearby varieties, including coda weakening and neutralization, non-inversion o ...
, ''cochinos'' may also mean the queen triggerfish ('' Balistes vetula''), which inhabit coral reefs in Bahía de Cochinos, not swine (''
Sus scrofa The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The species is n ...
'').


Geography

This bay is approximately south of
Jagüey Grande Jagüey Grande, simply known as Jagüey (), is a town and municipality in the Matanzas Province of Cuba. It is located east of the Zapata Peninsula, north of the Bahia de Cochinos, along the A1 motorway in the center of the province. History The ...
, west of the city of
Cienfuegos Cienfuegos (), capital of Cienfuegos Province, is a city on the southern coast of Cuba. It is located about from Havana and has a population of 150,000. Since the late 1960s, Cienfuegos has become one of Cuba's main industrial centers, especia ...
, and southeast from the capital city
Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.
. On the western side of the bay,
coral reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of Colony (biology), colonies of coral polyp (zoology), polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, wh ...
s border the main
Zapata Swamp The Zapata Swamp ( es, Ciénaga de Zapata, ) is located on the Zapata Peninsula in the southern Matanzas Province of Cuba, in the municipality of Ciénaga de Zapata. It is located less than southeast of Havana. Species and preservation Within th ...
, part of the
Zapata Peninsula Zapata Peninsula ( es, Península de Zapata) is a large peninsula in Matanzas Province, southern Cuba, at . Ciénaga de Zapata National Park is located on the peninsula. It is located south of Ensenada de la Broa, east of the gulf of Bataban ...
. On the eastern side, beaches border margins of firm ground with
mangroves A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evolution in sever ...
and extensive areas of swampland to the north and east. At the north end of the bay, the village of Buena Ventura is adjacent to Playa Larga (Long Beach). southeast of that,
Playa Girón :''Note: "Playa Girón" is also the title of a song included in the album " Días y Flores", by Silvio Rodriguez.'' Playa Girón (; "Girón beach") is a beach and village on the east bank of the Bahia de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs), which is located i ...
(Giron Beach) at the village of Girón, named after the notorious French pirate
Gilberto Giron Gilberto is the Iberian and Italian version of the originally Norman-French given name '' Gilbert'', used in Italian, Portuguese and Spanish languages. In Galician, it's spelled Xilberto or Xilberte. ''Gilbert'' is ultimately derived from the Ge ...
(c. 1604).Rodríguez Cruz, 1999, p.115


History

Playa Girón and Playa Larga were the landing sites for seaborne forces of armed Cuban exiles and the land strip for some American planes(but not many as America did not want Cuba to realize that it was American sponsored) in the
Bay of Pigs Invasion The Bay of Pigs Invasion (, sometimes called ''Invasión de Playa Girón'' or ''Batalla de Playa Girón'' after the Playa Girón) was a failed military landing operation on the southwestern coast of Cuba in 1961 by Cuban exiles, covertly fin ...
, an American
CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
-sponsored attempt to overthrow the new government of Cuban Prime Minister
Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 20 ...
in April 1961. According to Fidel Castro's former bodyguard, the late Juan Reinaldo Sánchez, Castro lived in great luxury and had a private island called Cayo Piedra in the Bay of Pigs, replete with "mansions, guest houses, a heliport, dolphinarium, turtle lagoon, his luxury yacht ''Aquarama'' – a gift from
Leonid Brezhnev Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev; uk, links= no, Леонід Ілліч Брежнєв, . (19 December 1906– 10 November 1982) was a Soviet politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union between 1964 and 1 ...
– and deep-sea fishing speedboat".


Diving

The Bay of Pigs is a relatively quiet site for diving. Dive centers exist in Playa Larga, Playa Girón and Caleta Buena. Twelve dive sites in the bay display excellent visibility of , an average water temperature of in December and in July. Walls of coral, caverns and a variety of fish (including the
barracuda A barracuda, or cuda for short, is a large, predatory, ray-finned fish known for its fearsome appearance and ferocious behaviour. The barracuda is a saltwater fish of the genus ''Sphyraena'', the only genus in the family Sphyraenidae, which ...
, lionfish and
grouper Groupers are fish of any of a number of genera in the subfamily Epinephelinae of the family Serranidae, in the order Perciformes. Not all serranids are called "groupers"; the family also includes the sea basses. The common name "grouper" ...
s, among others), coral and sponges can be found in the Bay of Pigs. The Cueva de los Peces, with depth the deepest
cenote A cenote ( or ; ) is a natural pit, or sinkhole, resulting from the collapse of limestone bedrock that exposes groundwater. The regional term is specifically associated with the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, where cenotes were commonly used ...
of Cuba, is located at south of Playa Larga.


Biodiversity

Surrounding the Bay of Pigs, the
endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...
wormlizards '' Amphisbaena barbouri'' and '' A. cubana'' have been noted.Rodríguez Schettino et al., 2013, pp.9–10 The following marine species have been registered along the eastern coast of the Bay of Pigs:


See also

*
Geography of Cuba Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean Sea. Cuba's area is 110,860 km² (42,803 sq mi) including coastal and territorial waters with a land area of . This makes it the eighth-largest island country in the world. The main island (Cuba) has of ...


References


Citations


Sources

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Further reading

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External links

* {{Authority control Geography of Matanzas Province
Pigs The pig (''Sus domesticus''), often called swine, hog, or domestic pig when distinguishing from other members of the genus '' Sus'', is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is variously considered a subspecies of ''Sus ...
Underwater diving sites in the Caribbean