Scientific Literature: Searchable Database

To date, 26 cetacean species are known to inhabit or visit the waters of the Canary Islands (RITTER & BREDERLAU 1998), making the archipelago an important area for cetacean observation. La Gomera (17°15'W - 17°21'W and 28°1'N - 28°14'N) lies about 400 kilometres off the West African mainland in the Atlantic Ocean and belongs to the Western Canary Islands. The islands are steep volcanoes surrounded by deep waters close to the coast. Some authors see the oceanographic circumstances as an absence of a shelf (MARTIN et al. 1992). In the Western part of the archipelago, the sea-bottom drops steeply to about 4.000 metres into the Canaries basin (ROTHE 1986). In the Southwest of La Gomera, a depth of 2000 m is only a few kilometres away from the coast. The climate is mainly determined by the island's position in the north-eastern trade-wind. Water temperatures are approximately 22°C - 24°C in summer and 17°C - 19°C in winter. This temperature is lower than might be expected for a subtropical region, mainly due to the cold upwelling off West Africa and the cooler Canaries Current (FERNANDOPULLÉ 1976).