Islas Canarias Islands

[Yolette Langevin]

Theangel shark family is the second most threatened family of sharks and ray in the world. These species are susceptible to the combined impacts of fishing and habitat degradation, due to their coastal location and biology (large, flat-bodied animals with low reproduction rates).

Three species of angel shark were once widespread throughout the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea (Angelshark, Sawback Angelshark & Smoothback Angelshark), but following widespread decline only fragmented populations remain. Find out more about these species on the Angel Shark Conservation Network and in a recently published paper.

Angel Shark Project: Canary Islands is a multidisciplinary programme that collects ecological and population data whilst engaging with local communities, researchers and government to raise awareness and deliver conservation action.

The Angel Shark Project is a collaboration between three European Partners: The University of Las Palmas in Gran Canaria (ULPGC), the Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig (ZFMK) and Zoological Society of London (ZSL). The Angel Shark Project: Canary Islands was established in 2013 and has grown into a network of collaborators, including researchers, government, divers, fishers and photographers.

Our aim is to identify and study Angelshark nursery areas to secure protection of these important habitats. Our research includes investigating spatial distribution and habitat use of juvenile Angelsharks; population size and structure; reproductive behaviour; growth rates; and the impact of environmental variables.

Researchers, students and volunteers conduct regular surveys at these nursery areas to tag juvenile Angelsharks and re-capture any sharks that have been tagged previously. The recapture of juvenile sharks gives us important information on their biology in the first stages of their life. If you see a juvenile shark report it to the sightings map.

Las Teresitas in Tenerife is the very first confirmed Angelshark nursery area in the Canary Islands and where we focus a lot of research. It is a perfect laboratory thanks to the density of sharks and the great conditions of this beach to carry out our work. Find out more here.

Limited understanding of adult Angelshark habitat use, movement and site fidelity is a major factor preventing effective protection in the Canary Islands. We are working to understand Angelshark ecology through analysis of citizen science sightings, tagging and genetic analysis. Our aims of this research are to:

Working with fishing communities is essential for the conservation of Angelsharks. Together we have developed a best practice guide to safely release Angelsharks accidentally caught, so that they are the best condition possible when released.

As well as following best practice guidance, fishers and charter boat clients have provided important information that makes an important contribution to our research. Check out results of 2019 questionnaires (English Espaol).

Visual identification tagging is an easy and effective way to gather information about Angelshark habitat use. A coloured tag, a different colour for each island, with a unique code is placed between the two dorsal fins of the shark, making it easy for divers to identify the individuals.

Whenever we tag an Angelshark in the Canary Islands, we also collect a small genetic sample. Adult samples are used to compare the DNA of Angelsharks from different places and islands to see whether they are connected across the islands of the archipelago. Samples from juvenile sharks are used to explore Angelshark reproductive behaviour, philopatry (whether Angelsharks return to a specific site across years), and population structure at nursery areas.

The Angel Shark Project has gathered tissue samples from the Canary Islands, Wales, Ireland, West Africa and across the Mediterranean to see whether remaining angel shark populations are connected or are isolated units. Analyses will feed into the East Atlantic and Mediterranean Angel Shark Conservation Strategy.

Siempre que etiquetamos un angelote en las Islas Canarias, tambin recolectamos una pequea muestra gentica. Las muestras de adultos se utilizan para comparar el ADN de los tiburones ngel de diferentes lugares e islas, para ver si estn relacionados con otros a travs de las islas del archipilago. Las muestras de tiburones juveniles se utilizan para explorar el comportamiento reproductivo del tiburn, la filopatra (si los angelotes regresan a un sitio especfico a lo largo de los aos) y la estructura de la poblacin en las reas de cra.

El Proyecto Angel Shark ha recolectado muestras de tejido de las Islas Canarias, Gales, Irlanda, frica Occidental y de todo el Mediterrneo, para ver si las poblaciones restantes de tiburones ngel estn relacionadas o son unidades aisladas. Los anlisis se incorporarn a la estrategia de conservacin del tiburn ngel del Atlntico este y Mediterrneo.

En 2018 completamos la primera campaa de marcaje acstico de angelotes dirigida a mejorar la comprensin del uso del hbitat, los desplazamientos y la fidelidad al sitio en la reserva marina de La Graciosa.

Durante dos expediciones en julio y noviembre de 2018, se colocaron siete receptores acsticos alrededor de la isla de La Graciosa y se colocaron etiquetas acsticas en 22 tiburones ngel. En noviembre de 2019, descargamos los datos del primer ao de estos receptores, etiquetamos 32 angelotes adicionales y colocamos cuatro receptores ms, tres de los cuales se instalaron a 120 m de profundidad para investigar el movimiento de angelote en aguas profundas.

El etiquetado visual es una forma fcil y eficaz de recopilar informacin sobre el uso del hbitat de Angelote. Se coloca una etiqueta de color (un color diferente para cada isla) con un cdigo nico entre las dos aletas dorsales del tiburn, eso facilita a los buceadores la identificacin de los individuos.

The main islands are (from largest to smallest) Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro. The archipelago also includes a number of islands and islets: La Graciosa, Alegranza, Isla de Lobos, Montaa Clara, Roque del Oeste and Roque del Este. In ancient times, the island chain was often referred to as "the Fortunate Isles".[9] The Canary Islands is the most southerly region of Spain. The Canary Islands is the largest and most populated archipelago of the Macaronesia region.[10]

The archipelago's beaches, climate and important natural attractions, especially Maspalomas in Gran Canaria and Teide National Park and Mount Teide (a World Heritage Site) in Tenerife (the third tallest volcano in the world measured from its base on the ocean floor), make it a major tourist destination with over 12 million visitors per year, especially Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria and Lanzarote.[11][12] The islands have a subtropical climate, with long warm summers and moderately warm winters.[13] The precipitation levels and the level of maritime moderation varies depending on location and elevation. Green areas as well as desert exist on the archipelago. Due to their location above the temperature inversion layer, the high mountains of these islands are ideal for astronomical observation. For this reason, two professional observatories, Teide Observatory on the island of Tenerife and Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on the island of La Palma, have been built on the islands.

The capital of the Autonomous Community is shared by the cities of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria,[14][15] which in turn are the capitals of the provinces of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Province of Las Palmas. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria has been the largest city in the Canaries since 1768, except for a brief period in the 1910s.[16] Between the 1833 territorial division of Spain and 1927 Santa Cruz de Tenerife was the sole capital of the Canary Islands. In 1927 a decree ordered that the capital of the Canary Islands be shared, as it remains at present.[17][18] The third largest city of the Canary Islands is San Cristbal de La Laguna (a World Heritage Site) on Tenerife.[19][20][21] This city is also home to the Consejo Consultivo de Canarias, which is the supreme consultative body of the Canary Islands.[22]

The name Islas Canarias is likely derived from the Latin name Canariae Insulae, meaning "Islands of the Dogs", a name applied originally only to Gran Canaria. According to the historian Pliny the Elder, the Mauretanian king Juba II named the island Canaria because it contained "vast multitudes of dogs of very large size".[25]

Another speculation is that the so-called dogs were actually a species of monk seal (canis marinus or "sea dog" was a Latin term for "seal"[26]), critically endangered and no longer present in the Canary Islands.[27] The dense population of seals may have been the characteristic that most struck the few ancient Romans who established contact with these islands by sea.

Alternatively, it is said that the original inhabitants of the island, Guanches, used to worship dogs, mummified them and treated dogs generally as holy animals.[28] The ancient Greeks also knew about a people, living far to the west, who are the "dog-headed ones", who worshipped dogs on an island.[28] Some hypothesize that the Canary Islands dog-worship and the ancient Egyptian cult of the dog-headed god, Anubis are closely connected[29] but there is no explanation given as to which one was first.

Other theories speculate that the name comes from the Nukkari Berber tribe living in the Moroccan Atlas, named in Roman sources as Canarii, though Pliny again mentions the relation of this term with dogs.[citation needed]

It is considered that the aborigines of Gran Canaria called themselves "Canarii". It is possible that after being conquered, this name was used in plural in Spanish i.e. -as to refer to all of the islands as the Canarii-as

Panoramic view of Gran Canaria, with Roque Nublo at the left and Roque Bentayga at the center Tenerife is the most populous island, and also the largest island of the archipelago. Gran Canaria, with 865,070 inhabitants, is both the Canary Islands' second most populous island, and the third most populous one in Spain after Majorca. The island of Fuerteventura is the second largest in the archipelago and located 100 km (62 mi) from the African coast.

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