Bay of Pigs
Bahía de los Cochinos (Spanish)
Bay of Pigs from Cueva de los Peces
Bay of Pigs Location of the Bay of Pigs in Cuba
Geographical location of the Bay of Pigs
Location	Matanzas, Cuba
Coordinates	22°13′N 81°10′W / 22.217°N 81.167°W / 22.217; -81.167
Type	Bay
Etymology	Cochino meaning both "pig" and "triggerfish"
Part of	Gulf of Cazones
Ocean/sea sources	Caribbean Sea
Max. length	max. 27 km (17 mi)
Max. width	max. 10 km (6.2 mi)
Surface area	200 km2 (77 sq mi)
Shore length1	87 km (54 mi)
Max. temperature	29 °C (84 °F)
Min. temperature	22 °C (72 °F)
Frozen	Never
Islands	Cayo Piedra
Settlements	Playa Girón, Playa Larga
References	[1][2]
1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure.

The Bay of Pigs (Spanish: Bahía de los Cochinos) 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 instead to Las Villas Province by 1961, but in 1976, it was reassigned to Matanzas Province, when the original six provinces of Cuba were re-organized into 14 new Provinces of Cuba.

The bay is historically important for the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion 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,^[3] to be found in the bay.^[4]

Etymology

In Cuban Spanish, cochinos may also mean the queen triggerfish (Balistes vetula), which inhabit coral reefs in Bahía de Cochinos, not swine (Sus scrofa).^[5][6]

Geography

Sunset in Playa Girón

This bay is approximately 30 kilometres (19 mi) south of Jagüey Grande, 70 kilometres (43 mi) west of the city of Cienfuegos, and 150 kilometres (93 mi) southeast from the capital city Havana. On the western side of the bay, coral reefs border the main Zapata Swamp, part of the Zapata Peninsula. On the eastern side, beaches border margins of firm ground with mangroves 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). 35 kilometres (22 mi) southeast of that, Playa Girón (Giron Beach) at the village of Girón, named after the notorious French pirate Gilberto Giron (c. 1604).^[7]

History

Bay of Pigs, 1961

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, an American CIA-sponsored attempt to overthrow the new government of Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro 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 – and deep-sea fishing speedboat".^[8]

Diving

Monument honoring five Cuban political prisoners held captive in the United States

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 20 to 40 metres (66 to 131 ft), an average water temperature of 22 °C (72 °F) in December and 29 °C (84 °F) in July. Walls of coral, caverns and a variety of fish (including the barracuda, lionfish and groupers, among others), coral and sponges can be found in the Bay of Pigs.^[4]

The Cueva de los Peces, with 72 metres (236 ft) depth the deepest cenote of Cuba, is located at 18 kilometres (11 mi) south of Playa Larga.^[9]

Biodiversity

Surrounding the Bay of Pigs, the endemic wormlizards Amphisbaena barbouri and A. cubana have been noted.^[10] The following marine species have been registered along the eastern coast of the Bay of Pigs:

Group	Common name	Scientific name	Image	Notes
Fish	blue chromis	Chromis cyanea		[11]
	blue tang	Acanthurus coeruleus
	bluehead wrasse	Thalassoma bifasciatum
	striped parrotfish	Scarus iseri
	beau gregory	Stegastes leucostictus
	bicolor damselfish	Stegastes partitus
	boga	Inermia vittata
	Colon goby	Coryphopterus dicrus
	creole wrasse	Clepticus parrae
	longfin damselfish	Stegastes diencaeus
	masked goby	Coryphopterus personatus
	threespot damselfish	Stegastes planifrons
	yellowhead wrasse	Halichoeres garnoti
	French grunt	Haemulon flavolineatum		[12]
	ocean surgeon	Acanthurus bahianus
	sergeant major	Abudefduf saxatilis
	slippery dick	Halichoeres bivittatus
	yellowtail snapper	Ocyurus chrysurus
	bar jack	Caranx ruber
	barred hamlet	Hypoplectrus puella
	brown chromis	Chromis multilineata
	foureye butterflyfish	Chaetodon capistratus
	graysby	Epinephelus cruentatus
	longjaw squirrelfish	Holocentrus marianus
	redband parrotfish	Sparisoma aurofrenatum
	royal gramma	Gramma loreto
	stoplight parrotfish	Sparisoma viride
	tomtate grunt	Haemulon aurolineatum
	white grunt	Haemulon plumierii
	porgies	Calamus sp.
	banded butterflyfish	Chaetodon striatus		[13]
	buffalo trunkfish	Lactophrys trigonus		[14]
	flat needlefish	Ablennes hians		[15]
	glasseye	Heteropriacanthus cruentatus		[16]
	longspine squirrelfish	Holocentrus rufus		[17]
	plate fish	Bothus lunatus		[18]
	red lionfish (invasive)	Pterois volitans		[19]
	spotfin butterflyfish	Chaetodon ocellatus		[20]
	trumpetfish	Aulostomus maculatus		[21]
Sponges	azure vase sponge	Callyspongia plicifera		[22]
	yellow tube sponge	Aplysina fistularis		[23]
	green finger sponge	Iotrochota birotulata
	orange icing sponge	Mycale laevis
	pink vase sponge	Niphates digitalis
	row pore rope sponge	Aplysina cauliformis
	touch-me-not sponge	Neofibularia nolitangere
	demosponges	Cliona sp.
		Cliona aprica
		Cliona delitrix
		Cliona varians
		Aiolochroia crassa
		Ectyoplasia ferox
		Ircinia felix
		Mycale laxissima
		Plakortis angulospiculatus
		Scopalina ruetzleri
		Smenospongia aurea
		Spirastrella coccinea
Corals	boulder brain coral	Colpophyllia natans		[24]
	Caribbean sea whip	Plexaura homomalla		[25]
	elkhorn coral	Acropora palmata		[26]
	great star coral	Montastraea cavernosa		[27]
	maze coral	Meandrina meandrites		[28]
	purple sea fan	Gorgonia ventalina		[29]
	sea ginger	Millepora alcicornis		[30]
Crustaceans	Caribbean spiny lobster	Panulirus argus		[31]
Echinoderms	donkey dung sea cucumber	Holothuria mexicana		[32]
Mollusks	queen conch	Lobatus gigas		[33]

See also

• Geography of Cuba

References

Further reading

• Wyden, Peter (1979). Bay of Pigs – The Untold Story. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-671-24006-4, 0224017543, 978-0-671-24006-6.

External links

• Media related to Bay of Pigs at Wikimedia Commons