Hurricanes can cause extensive long-term damage to small-scale fisheries. Yet, information is scarce on how communities are locally impacted by extreme events in the Caribbean and in other parts of the world. Focusing on an artisanal fishery in Yaguajay, Sancti Spiritus, Cuba, this article explores how artisanal fishers have perceived and responded to the different damages brought about by Hurricane Irma in September 2017 and the inundations associated with Storm Alberto in May 2018. Combining discussions and short interviews carried out pre and post-storms Irma and Alberto, this study identifies major environmental impacts and matching responses. In addition, the article sheds light on the evolution of small-scale fishing communities in Cuba and their current organization. Results show local perceptions of extensive biodiversity loss in terms of mangrove coverage, changes in salinity, and the quality of coastal environments that have affected the composition of captures and fish sizes. As a consequence of these changes, fishers are adjusting their effort and fishing intensity to match perturbations. Findings underscore the need to identify the synergistic relations that may exist between prior environmental degradation and different extreme events such as droughts, hurricanes, and excessive precipitation. The interrelation of these factors may result in compounded aggravated impacts that may unfold over longer temporal scales and not just as a one-time event. Authors conclude by stressing the importance of including the systematic study of extreme events along with local perceptions of ecological change in fishery management plans. Because fishers´ responses to hazards are based on their experiences and knowledge of the state of coastal and marine habitats, and especially on expectations about what constitutes normal ranges of change, threats, and levels of risks, this information is key to guide behavioral interventions and decision frameworks that can foster the development of hurricane resistant communities.

Sharing information between different countries is key for developing sustainable solutions to environmental change. Coastal wetlands in the Gulf of Mexico are suffering significant environmental and human-related threats. Working across national boundaries, this research project brings together scientists, specialists and local communities from Cuba and the USA. While important advances have been made in strengthening collaborations, important obstacles remain in terms of international policy constraints, different institutional and academic cultures and technology. Overcoming these limitations is essential to formulating a comprehensive understanding of the challenges that coastal socioecological systems are facing now and into the future.

The past years have shown the widespread vulnerability of agro-food systems and rural diets to external perturbations such as wars, climate events, and pandemics. Experiencing numerous obstacles, Cuba constitutes an example of success in the transition to agroecological sustainability models. This article characterizes how processes of agricultural change, local development, and industrial degrowth have impacted food availability and dietary diversity among rural livelihoods in the municipality of Yaguajay, Sancti Spíritus, for the past forty years (1980s–2020s). It integrates findings from focus groups, repeated nutritional surveys, and interviews carried out between 2016 and 2022 among residents of the towns of Yaguajay and La Picadora. The goal is to identify effects and response strategies within agro-food systems of rural populations. Distinguishing between periods of abundance and shortage, our findings show two counterpoints: intensive sugar monocrop cultivation, which resulted in high dietary variety; and economic crises in the 1990s and during the last period of the pandemic, which have led to significant dietary adjustments. The article concludes by underscoring the importance of comprehensive assessments of dietary strategies to elicit what agroecological transitions mean for local realities and of the value of food consumption and small-holder production experiences to understand the limits to sustainable transformations.

La pesca y la agricultura requieren de un gasto de energía elevado, lo cual influye en los estilos de vida de las poblaciones que practican estas actividades. El objetivo del trabajo es comparar composición de la dieta, estado nutricional y actividad física de 19 campesinos y 14 pescadores ocasionales del municipio Yaguajay, Cuba. La frecuencia de consumo semanal de alimentos se obtuvo mediante un cuestionario. Se evaluó el estado nutricional y la actividad física con el cuestionario IPAQ, este último se aplicó a una submuestra, a la cual se le monitoreó su estado nutricional cinco meses después de la evaluación inicial. La dieta de ambos grupos se caracterizó por alto consumo de arroz, frijoles y viandas. El consumo de pescados y vegetales fue mayor en los pescadores. En la segunda medición, los pescadores aumentaron aproximadamente una unidad su porcentaje de grasa corporal, mientras que los campesinos perdieron aproximadamente 1 kg de peso. El 60% de los pescadores realizó actividad física alta y el 40 % media, para los campesinos los valores fueron 88, 9 % y 11,1% respectivamente. Los campesinos practicaban actividad física diaria, mientras que los pescadores pescaban ocasionalmente.A su vez, los pescadores tuvieron una dieta más saludable, aunque fue más frecuente en ellos la obesidad.