Gulf of Cazones () is a large

gulf A gulf is a large inlet from an ocean or their seas into a landmass, larger and typically (though not always) with a narrower opening than a bay (geography), bay. The term was used traditionally for large, highly indented navigable bodies of s ...

in southern

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

. It is located at the south by the provinces of

Matanzas Matanzas (Cuban ; ) is the capital of the Cuban province of Matanzas Province, Matanzas. Known for its poets, culture, and Afro-American religions, Afro-Cuban folklore, it is located on the northern shore of the island of Cuba, on the Bay of Mat ...

and

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 178,368 in 2022. Since the late 1960s, Cienfuegos has become one of Cuba's main industrial centers, ...

, between the northeast edge of the Jardinillos Bank on the south, and Piedras and other cays and reefs on the north. It is considered dangerous for sailing vessels to traverse because of calms and cross currents.

Geography

Two miles east-northeast of the south point of Diego Perez Cay is the beginning of the northeast section of the Jardinillos (or Jardines) bank which continues to the southeast of East Rock. East Rock is situated approximately a cable from the northeast end of East Guano Cay, to which it is connected by a reef. This northern edge of the bank rises like a wall with one or two sandy patches on it above water. With Pedras Cays and the reefs on the north, it forms the Gulf of Cazones. A submerged platform, between 3 and 4 fathoms (5.5 to 7.3 metres) deep, exists between the

Bay of Pigs The Bay of Pigs () is an inlet of the Gulf of Cazones, located on the southern coast of Cuba. By 1910 it was included in Santa Clara Province, and then to Las Villas Province by 1961, but in 1976, it was reassigned to Matanzas Province, when ...

, the Gulf of Cazones, the Gulf of Batabano, and the Isle of Pines. It is also inferred that the Gulf of Cazones may have been created due to a geological fault.

History

The

(), a small undistinguished bay on the Gulf of Cazones, was the location of the 1961

Bay of Pigs Invasion The Bay of Pigs Invasion (, sometimes called or after the Playa Girón) was a failed military landing operation on the southwestern coast of Cuba in April 1961 by the United States of America and the Cuban Democratic Revolutionary Front ...

, a failed attempt by a group of Cuban counter-revolutionaries, funded and trained by the United States, to overthrow

Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban politician and revolutionary who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President of Cuba, president ...

's leftist government.

Marine life

On the western border of the Gulf of Cazones, a stretch of forms the head of Cayo Sigua and Cayo Blanco. In this stretch, with vertical cliffs, there are diving locations where the depth of the sea varies from 15 m to 200m. At these diving locations, coral fish and large tubular sponges,

sea fans Alcyonacea is the old scientific order name for the informal group known as "soft corals". It is now an unaccepted name for class Octocorallia. It became deprecated . The following text should be considered a historical, outdated way of treating ...

and coral colonies are reported.

Lane snapper The lane snapper (''Lutjanus synagris''), the Mexican snapper, redtail snapper or spot snapper, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a snapper belonging to the family Lutjanidae. It is native to the western Atlantic Ocean. Taxonomy The lane s ...

s (''Lutjanus analis'') spawn at the edge of the gulf.

Black coral Antipatharians, also known as black corals or thorn corals, are an order of soft deep-water corals. These corals can be recognized by their jet-black or dark brown chitin skeletons, which are surrounded by their colored polyps (part of coral th ...

has been depleted in the shallower waters of the gulf as its use for ornamental jewellery has increased since the 1960s, although there are now regulations forbidding the collection of specimens less than tall and wide.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gulf Of Cazones Bodies of water of Cuba

Cazones Cazones de Herrera, or Cazones, is a town and Municipalities of Veracruz, municipality located in the north of the List of states of Mexico, Mexican state of Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico. While it has tourist attractions along its shore, especia ...