Goodbye to the Huge Stone Towers on the Beaches of Tenerife

Building stone towers on some beaches is a long-standing custom. On certain beaches in Tenerife, such as El Jardín and El Beril, the number of stones that have accumulated has created unique postcards, but according to ecologists, this practice is harming the island's flora and fauna. For this reason, a group of volunteers has set out to clean these areas and protect the environment.

This tradition comes from ancient peoples who used stones to mark burials, and it has been passed down through different cultures and traditions around the world. However, it was in 1987 when the practice became popular, particularly during the Harmonic Convergence in the United States, a meditation event that led to the creation of stone towers built by participants. Since then, the trend has spread to beaches worldwide, and now stone towers are being built without any particular reason.

Although the act of stacking stones is not unique to the Canary Islands, these two beaches in Tenerife have set a record in all of Europe, with the stone tower stretch measuring 200 meters long and 150 meters wide at one of their clearings. We can see landscapes like this on more beaches along the coast of Spain, but as explained by Jaime Coello, a lawyer, environmental educator, and director of the Telesforo Bravo-Juan Coello Foundation, 'to see something similar to that in Tenerife, you have to go to Hawaii, Aruba, or Reunion Island.' The organization, in collaboration with the Puerto de la Cruz City Council and the island council, organized the removal of stones at Playa Jardín last Saturday.

As explained by Matías Fonte, the dean of the Official College of Biologists of the Canary Islands, this act causes 'a loss of habitat for animals and plants, because under each stone there is a whole ecosystem of vertebrates and invertebrates, bacteria, lichens, and fungi,' and it leads to landscape degradation each time the towers increase in height. Some of the most affected species are limpets, sea snails, and crabs, as well as algae and lichens. Additionally, there are geological consequences: 'Moving the stones artificially removes information about the ground on which they settle, because the rocks are the books in which we read the history of the Earth,' noted Ramón Casillas, a professor of Petrology and Geochemistry at the University of La Laguna, and he lamented that 'Man must leave a mark wherever he goes.'