Madrid — The Oceana Ranger catamaran is equipped with a robot that has dived down to 500 meters depth to film species that are rarely spotted, or have never even been seen, in the Canarian archipelago.
The goal of the expedition is to identify areas that should be turned into marine protected areas. Only 2.7% of the EU’s marine surface area is protected, but the United Nations calls for 10%.
Oceana has found around a dozen species in the Canary Islands whose existence in the archipelago was unknown until now. Glass and rock sponges, ball, white and black coral, and armored searobin are some of the species that have been found. A wide variety of rare species, or species for which hardly any biological information is known, were also able to be filmed live, including channeled rockfish and anglerfish, silver and pink gallo fish, fan coral, bathyal sea fans, Venus fly-trap anemones and lollipops sponges.
This is the preliminary result of the catamaran Oceana Ranger’s first month of its campaign in Canarian waters. Oceana, in cooperation with Fundación Biodiversidad (Spain), is studying the sea beds around the archipelago to document areas that due to their environmental importance should be made into marine protected areas. Oceana is also compiling scientific information to support the inclusion of some SCIs (Sites of Community Interest) in the Natura 2000 Network. Some of these sites are: Cagafrecho (Lanzarote), Mogán, Arinaga-Gando and Sardina del Norte (Gran Canaria), Teno (Tenerife), Valle Gran Rey (La Gomera), Garafía (La Palma) and Mar de las Calmas (El Hierro) and the expansion of Anaga (Tenerife), Jandía or Isla de Lobos (Fuerteventura) and Los Órganos (La Gomera).
Read the complete story at Tenerife Forum.