The Santa Cruz City Council and Cepsa Foundation promote environmental awareness around the oceans in 'Los Charcos'

• An interpretive table offers advice for protecting marine life in this new bathing area

The City Council of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, through the Santa Cruz Sustainable Foundation, continues to promote, with the collaboration of the Cepsa Foundation, awareness about the importance of caring for the environment in the bathing areas of Santa Cruz. For this reason, an interpretive table about the oceans has been installed in Los Charcos, Valleseco, just like last year when others were placed on San Andrés Avenue, to inform and raise awareness among the local population and visitors about the natural riches and threats faced by the municipality's seabed, as well as to promote good practices on the coast.

The mayor of Santa Cruz, José Manuel Bermúdez, assures that "the installation of this table, which adds to the other three in San Andrés, helps to disseminate the richness of our environment and our funds, and to raise awareness about the importance of their protection", and points out that "the bathing area of Los Charcos is close to the sebadal of San Andrés and to those of Antequera, areas of special conservation that harbor a great ecological richness."

For the head of the Cepsa Foundation in the Canary Islands, Belén Machado, "this citizen awareness initiative promotes knowledge of our seas, thereby helping to preserve them. At first glance, these panels highlight the problems faced by marine fauna, and instill simple habits in citizens that allow us all to protect it, for example through responsible consumption and using less plastic, participating in clean-ups, not touching animals, or properly separating and recycling waste, among other tips" she states.

On his part, the councilor for Environmental Sustainability and vice president of the Santa Cruz Sustainable Foundation, Carlos Tarife, explains that "the sea is a great source of life and home to numerous species, so through dissemination, in this case in an interactive and accessible way, we seek to awaken interest and concern for preserving our marine resources, in addition to focusing on the education of the younger generations, who will be responsible for making responsible decisions in the future."

The interpretive table is divided into different sections. The main place is occupied by a text box where the species of the bottlenose dolphin, its ecology, and its type of feeding are described. At the bottom of the table, you can see a section that summarizes the main threats faced by marine fauna, as well as some tips or recommendations that help with their conservation. But also, a QR code connected to the same interactive platform used in the previous tables, with information about the marine environment of the Macizo del Anaga Biosphere Reserve.

It should be noted that near the bathing area of Los Charcos there are 1,110 sandbanks that are permanently covered by shallow seawater, 8,330 submerged or semi-submerged sea caves, and a presence of specimens of loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) and bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus).