Canary island crisis as four beaches now closed due to oil spill on popular island
Four beaches on the popular Spanish island of Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands are now closed to the public this weekend after an oil spill on Wednesday.
An oil spill which originated from the port of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria on Wednesday that reached the Telde coastline on Thursday and has now forced the closure of four beaches on the Canary Island.
La Restinga, El Barranquillo, Palos, and San Borondón have been closed to the public all weekend and the Canary Islands’ Emergency and Rescue Group (GES) will continue to monitor the spill throughout Sunday. Of particular focus will be La Restinga which is the most affected area.
A state of emergency was first declared on Thursday, after three tons of diesel from the Virgen del Pino dock at the Port of La Luz in Las Palmas resulted in a large oil slick that reached the shore of the capital. By the time the emergency protocol was activated at 1pm, the slick had already reached Bocabarranca beach and was moving southeast, threatening coastal ecosystems.
In response to the incident, the Environmental Minister for Gran Canaria, Raúl García Brink, took part in a crisis coordination meeting with CECOES alongside officials from Las Palmas, Telde, and other affected municipalities.
Brink emphasised the Cabildo's commitment to providing the necessary resources to tackle the spill. “We are fully prepared to collaborate and mobilise all available means to resolve this situation as quickly as possible,” he stated.
On Friday, the state of emergency was raised to level two, with emergency services struggling to control the situation due to poor weather and sea conditions. By this point, the spill measured just under a mile and a half long and 400 metres in width. The mayor of the municipality, Juan Antonio Peña, confirmed that 70 people were working to clean up and restore the coastline.
Telde's mayor, Juan Antonio Peña, expressed his gratitude to all those involved in the operation, and said he hopes the beaches will be back open to the public soon.
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In a separate incident, Playa Jardin, one of the most popular beaches among holidaymakers on the neighbouring island of Tenerife, has remained closed for two months due to faecal contamination from a broken underwater sewage pipe. The delay in repairs has prompted the launch of environmental assessments both on land and at sea to evaluate the extent of the pollution.
Last week, an emergency decree allocated 201,000 euros (£169,753) for immediate repairs to both land and sea sections of the pipeline. Similar problems have also impacted other popular beaches on the island, such as El Médano and La Pinta in the south of the island, which have both experienced multiple closures this summer due to high levels of pathogens in the water.
There were 10 oil spills in 2023, nine of medium spills in four continents and one large spill in Asia which was over 700 tonnes. Thankfully, the number of spills has been decreasing since the 1970s, when there were over 20 large spills a year.
The first oil spill of 2024 was recorded in the North Sea, which covered over 13 miles. However, this spill was still a fraction of the size of other major spills, including the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010, the largest in history following the explosion of an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico.
