To entice tourists, developers on Tenerife in the Canary Islands created Playa de Las Teresitas, a popular beach for tourists, locals, and in the shallow waters, angelsharks. Maybe angelsharks always gathered here, but until recently, no one really knew. Unanticipated was what their presence gave to one of the world’s most endangered fish species-visibility. And then, from the Western Sahara on Africa’s northwest coast, they shipped in the pièce de résistance: 240,000 tonnes of sand.īy 1973, this gargantuan project, environmentally questionable from today’s viewpoint, was complete. Earthmovers leveled the foreshore and intertidal zone, and they constructed a breakwater over a kilometer long. They chose a stretch of coastline close to Santa Cruz and expropriated the avocado farms and other smallholdings. But while the islands had the sunshine, warm climate, and ease of access from Europe needed for this new industry, they were missing a vital element: picture-postcard sandy beaches.Ĭue planners on Tenerife, who concocted an audacious plan to make over one of the island’s exposed lava-rock beaches. In the 1950s, the boom in package tourism showed promise as a new cash crop. Over the years, livelihoods were threatened by cycles of crop disease, competition from cheaper markets, and lava flows that wiped out harvests and turned good agricultural land into barren terrain. For centuries, the islands’ economy thrived, but it was a fragile wealth.
When the Spanish took control of the Canaries in the 1400s, they began cultivating cash crops: cochineal and sugar cane in the beginning, and later adding bananas, tomatoes, and other valuable commodities. The bay-engineered and less than 10 kilometers from the Canaries’ second-largest city-is a surprising haven for pups of one of the world’s most critically endangered fish: the angelshark. This is Playa de las Teresitas, a magnet for northern European tourists craving winter sun.īut most of the people sunbathing on Teresitas are likely unaware of what lurks in the shallow waters lapping the shoreline. In contrast to most of the island’s stark geology, north of the island’s capital, Santa Cruz, is a long crescent-shaped beach of soft yellow sand, with groves of palm trees and a calm bay created by a long breakwater.
Tenerife’s interior highlands are a moonscape, while its coastline of lava rock and sheer cliffs is pounded by surf.
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The biggest and most populated island, Tenerife, rises from the deep-ocean floor to a series of peaks, one of which is the third-largest volcano in the world. Out in the Atlantic Ocean, roughly 100 kilometers off the northwest coast of Africa, lies an archipelago known as the Canary Islands, created millions of years ago by intense volcanic activity. Listen now, download, or subscribe to “Hakai Magazine Audio Edition” through your favorite podcast app. This article is also available in audio format.
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Stream or download audio For this article | 1,800 words, about 6 minutes Share this article Photo by Sergio Hanquet/Minden Pictures Huh, Our Fake Beach Is Good for Sharks In the Canary Islands, endangered angelsharks and European tourists are attracted to the same habitat which, for once, isn’t bad for the wildlife. The Canary Islands are a hotspot for critically endangered angelsharks ( Squatina squatina), perhaps lured by the artificial beaches that provide safe havens for juveniles.
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