277 Angelsharks Logged in One Quarter Across All Eight Canary Islands, Including the Biggest Aggregation Ever Recorded

Angelsharks (Squatina squatina) are flat, ambush-hunting sharks whose range has shrunk by an estimated 58 percent, and the Canary Islands are their last stronghold. The Angel Shark Project, a partnership including the Zoological Society of London, the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and the Leibniz Institute, runs a public sightings map fed by dive centres. Its January-March 2025 report logged 277 angelsharks across all eight islands, reported by more than 26 dive centres. In February 2025 the team also tagged three new juveniles at Las Teresitas, the largest known nursery, and recaptured two earlier-tagged young that had visibly grown. The project also fed angelshark protection into Canary Islands fisheries-decree consultations.