WWF Spain and the Society for the Study of Cetaceans in the Canary Islands (SECAC) have sounded the alarm about the dangers that maritime traffic has for the sperm whale.

After two years of research in the Canary Islands, both organizations have pointed out that since 1985 there have been 37 deaths of sperm whales due to collisions with boats, 30 of these specimens since 1999, the date on which the transport of passengers by sea, also known as “fastferries”, began.

It is a 60-ton species that has no natural enemies, and which currently faces two ferry routes that cross the channel between Tenerife and Gran Canaria and between Gran Canaria and Fuerteventura. These are two routes that coincide with two of the areas with the highest presence of these specimens, since stable groups of ten breeding females and offspring have been recorded. For WF and SECAC the solution could lie in the establishment of exclusion or reduced speed zones, so that the protection of the 30 species of cetaceans, of the 86 identified worldwide, that inhabit the waters of the Canary Islands is promoted.