Tenerife’s Whale Sanctuary and Coastal Ecosystem: Why the Teno-Rasca Marine Reserve Matters for the Atlantic

There are few places in Europe where you can watch a pod of short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus) year-round from a small boat, barely twenty minutes from shore. Tenerife is one of them. The waters along the island’s southwestern coast host one of the most biodiverse marine corridors in the Atlantic, a stretch of deep, warm sea that has earned formal protection at both Spanish and European level — and a designation that no other place on the continent shares. Understanding what makes this ecosystem extraordinary is also, increasingly, a matter of understanding what threatens it.

A Marine Sanctuary Unlike Any Other in Europe

The Teno-Rasca Special Area of Conservation (ZEC Teno-Rasca) runs along roughly 80 kilometres of Tenerife’s western coastline, from the Teno Massif in the north to Punta Rasca in the south. It covers approximately 76,648 hectares of ocean, reaching depths of around 2,000 metres at its farthest southern point, and it forms the largest Special Area of Conservation in the Canary Islands within the European Natura 2000 network. [1]

What sets this stretch of water apart is geography. The island rises steeply from the ocean floor, and the deep underwater trenches close to shore create conditions that would normally only exist far out to sea: cold, nutrient-rich upwellings meeting warm surface waters, producing a dense food web that supports an exceptional concentration of marine life. Up to 28 species of cetaceans have been recorded here. [2] Most remarkable among them are the short-finned pilot whales, a resident population that does not migrate and can be reliably observed on almost any given day of the year, making Tenerife one of the very few places on Earth where this is possible. [3]

Alongside the pilot whales, bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) maintain a permanent presence, while Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis), striped dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba), and occasional transient species such as fin whales, sperm whales, and orcas are recorded seasonally. Loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) and green turtles (Chelonia mydas) inhabit the waters throughout the year, and hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) and leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) are occasional visitors. [1]

Beneath the surface, the seabed is equally rich. The reserve contains sandbanks, rocky reefs, marine caves, and extensive meadows of seagrass known locally as sebadales — underwater prairies of Cymodocea nodosa that function as nurseries for juvenile fish, feeding grounds for sea turtles, and significant carbon sinks. These habitats are listed under the EU Habitats Directive as priority ecosystems requiring active conservation. [1]

In January 2021, the World Cetacean Alliance formally designated the Tenerife-La Gomera marine area as Europe’s first Whale Heritage Site, and the third in the world, recognising not only the ecological richness of the zone but also the island’s commitment to responsible marine tourism practices. [2] Mission Blue, the ocean conservation organisation founded by marine biologist Sylvia Earle, has also declared the area a Hope Spot in support of further protection efforts. [1]

Why the Coastal Crisis Threatens What the Reserve Protects

Recognition and legal protection do not automatically translate into good environmental outcomes, and the Teno-Rasca reserve exists within a broader coastal context that is under serious pressure. Tenerife welcomed 16.3 million visitors in 2025, and the strain that level of tourism places on the island’s infrastructure is becoming visible in its waters. [4]

The same coastline that contains Europe’s whale sanctuary also borders one of Spain’s most troubled wastewater management systems. Environmental NGO Ecologistas en Acción documented that approximately 57 million litres of wastewater are discharged into Canary Islands seas every single day, and the Court of Justice of the European Union formally condemned Spain in late 2025 for failing to adequately treat urban wastewater, identifying at least 12 critical locations on Tenerife alone. [5] While the worst contamination has been concentrated in the north and south of the island rather than in the heart of the marine reserve itself, discharges of this scale and consistency create cumulative effects across an interconnected ocean system. Microplastics, pharmaceutical residues, and nutrient pollution from sewage all move with currents, affecting the entire marine corridor.

The EU-funded OCEAN CITIZEN project, which selected Tenerife as its primary pilot site for marine restoration in 2024, has documented what decades of compounding pressures have already done: once-thriving fish populations have declined significantly, rocky reefs have been damaged, and seagrass meadows have retreated in several areas of the island due to a combination of pollution, overfishing, and rising ocean temperatures. [6] The project is working to address these losses through seagrass replanting, coral restoration including gorgonians and black coral populations, drone-based monitoring, and community engagement programmes designed to connect local residents to the conservation process.

There is also a contested infrastructure question. For several years, plans have existed to construct a new commercial port at Fonsalía, a location that sits within the Teno-Rasca conservation zone. Critics, including the international marine conservation organisation OceanCare, argue that the project was only made possible because the relevant coastal section was cut out of the protected area designation, not because it was less biodiverse. Local civic groups have organised in opposition under the name Plataforma Ciudadana Salvar Fonsalía. [7] The outcome of this dispute will have direct implications for the ecological integrity of Europe’s flagship whale sanctuary.

The Bigger Picture

Tenerife’s marine environment represents something genuinely irreplaceable in a European context. A resident population of pilot whales, 28 recorded cetacean species, seagrass meadows, deep-water reefs, and sea turtles, all within 12 nautical miles of a major tourist island, is a combination that exists nowhere else on the continent. The Teno-Rasca designation, the Whale Heritage Site status, and the OCEAN CITIZEN restoration programme all reflect a serious scientific and institutional recognition of what is at stake.

What is needed now is the political and economic will to match those designations with real infrastructure investment, consistent enforcement, and honest public communication about the health of these waters. The sea does not lie. And the pilot whales, whose ancestors have made this coastal channel their home for longer than any human record, are paying attention.

Sources

1. Teno-Rasca Marine Strip Special Area of Conservation overview, TenerifeDolphin.com and TenerifeWhaleWatching.com
2. AD Boat Rental: Tenerife — Europe’s First Whale Sanctuary, adboatrental.com
3. Whale Watch Tenerife, whale watching season data 2023-2025, whalewatchtenerife.org
4. Timeout: Tenerife Is Investing €81 Million Into A Massive Coastal Clean Up, timeout.com, March 2026
5. BritBrief: Health alert for Canary Islands — tourists warned about beach water pollution, britbrief.co.uk, January 2026
6. OceanCitizen EU: Reclaiming Tenerife’s Ocean, oceancitizen.eu, September 2024
7. OceanCare: Whales and Dolphins Off Tenerife in Danger, oceancare.org