The 66th Annual Hemingway International Fishing Tournament

Organizers highlighted a record number of U.S. boats and women in one of the oldest fishing competitions in the world.

Ernest Heminjgway at Hemignway Marlin Fishing Tournament

Ernest Hemingway and Fidel Castro during the Ernest Hemingway Marlin Fishing Tournament at Marlovento Marina on May 15, 1960

CubaSeas assisted completely or in part more than 70 boats competing in the 66th annual Hemingway Billfish tournament including handling all documents on the US side.

The 66th edition of one of the oldest fishing tournament has been “the most attended” ever. More than 400 fishermen and women participated.

Approximately 100 ships and yachts took part, including 87 from the USA, partly due to the current normalization of diplomatic relations between Washington and Havana. There were also teams from Lithuania, Argentina, Russia, Holland, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Spain, Italy, France and Cuba.

Organizers also highlighted the presence of women among competitors, mainly in U.S. and French teams.

The tournament was named after the U.S. Nobel Literature Prize winner who lived for more than 20 years in Cuba, and had a passion for fishing games. He won the first three tournaments in the 1950s.

His novel, “The Old Man and the Sea,” about an aging Cuban fisherman who struggles with a giant marlin far out at sea off the coast of Florida, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1953.