Our heavenly majorera coastline, which everyday hosts visitors lying on its beaches to enjoy the sun, surfing its waves or making boat trips, is also full of history. Here you are an article about the American Star, a great luxurious vessel that ran aground on the beach of Garcey, municipality of Pájara, in 1994, and that at that time meant a great tourist attraction in our island.

August 31st, 1939. The first lady in the USA, Eleanor Roosevelt, was naming one of the most luxurious vessels ever: The American Star.
She was a transatlantic meant for passengers, holding up 1048 people, her construction took over two years and it had a cost of 18 million dollars.
But this huge vessel’s inaugural journey (48m shorter than the Titanic) had to be put off, due to the WW II, as the vessel was militarized and reformed to transport troops to Europe, Pacific and Indian Oceans. She came to hold up 8000 soldiers, and even her name was changed: USS West Point.
After the war, In December 1946, this vessel’s inaugural trip really took place. The vessel was restored, thus recovering her initial luxury. She was also recovered by her original owners: The Northamerican Company United States Lines.
The vessel crossed the Atlantic several times, until planes gained ground little by little. Finally, in 1964, the vessel was retired from this service, and it was bought by a Greek shipping company that modernized her, made her bigger (2300 passengers), and re-named her as SS. Australis, for emigrants and tourists’ transport. Years passed by and the ship had different owners and names, and from the year 77 onwards her maintenance was left aside for a period of 16 years. The ship was retired and her machines turned unusable.
In 1993, her last period starts, when a Thai shipowner buys her for 2 million dollars in order to build a luxurious floating hotel in Bangkok. She was re-named again as American Star.
In January 15^th 1994, with dismantled propellers, propelled by the Ucranian tug boat Neftegaz 67, in the journey towards ‘El Puerto de la Luz’ (Gran Canaria), where a stop would be made before leaving towards Thailand, The American Star was lashed by a storm that made it impossible to recover the vessel’s control. Two days later the crew was rescued and the ship was left adrift, though the intention was to recover her once the storm died down.
Three days later, the American Star ran aground on the beach of Garcey, belonging to ‘La Pájara’, Fuerteventura’s Southwest coast. This would be her last destination, becoming a real attraction to foreigners and locals that came to watch the grandeur of one of the most luxurious vessels of her time, stranded a few meters from the shore.

While owners and insurances were arguing, the vessel was left at the mercy of strong currents and the swell, and she split in two. A bit later the stern sank in the ocean. The bow remained on the beach, but nowadays only her tip can be seen at low tide, fighting not to disappear for the rest of history.
Nowadays many people in this islands keep historical remains from the American Star. A pub in the capital was completely decorated with this ship’s items; The two pianos belonging to The American Star are believed to be in ‘Antigua’. The swivel chair that belonged to the First officer is now property of one of the craftsmen in this area.
Lots of stories like these are heard throughout the island, even the vessel’s wood has been used, among other people, by a craftsman, Kai, that makes high quality guitars with wood taken from the American Star.

From Fuertecharter we try not just to seduce you with our boat trips, but also to show you part of the history that this little big paradise holds up.

FuerteCharter’s team.

As we said in our previous article, we can distinguish up to 30 different species of cetaceans in the waters surrounding the coast of our archipelago. The main classification we can make of these huge sea animals allows us to divide them in three big groups: whales and fin whales, beaked whales and dolphins and Risso’s dolphins.
Sometimes, as we have already said, these huge mammals approach us on our boat trips and turn our adventure into an unforgettable experience.

Whales and Fin whales
These cetaceans are the biggest ones you can watch in Fuerteventura, and coming across one of them is always an unforgettable experience. Whales and fin whales are represented, in the waters of the Biosphere Reserve in Fuerteventura, by many emblematic species such as the sperm whale, the fin whale and the bryde’s whale.

– Fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus)
The fin whale is the biggest cetacean we can watch in Fuerteventura. Only the blue whale is bigger, and it has been rarely seen in the Canary Islands (Tenerife and La Gomera). Sometimes it leaps up out of the water and it can reach a speed of 30km/h. It can have a length of up to 26mts although it’s something exceptional and the average is usually much shorter.

One of the ways to identify it is its asymmetrical pigmentation: on the right side we can see its white lower lip, and on the left side, it’s grey.

The Bryde’s whale is a solitary cetacean that can rarely be seen in big pods, although they usually gather in places where food is abundant (sardines, mackerel and krill).
Despite its size (baby whales can weight up to 900 kg at birth), it’s an agile animal and her way of swimming is more similar to a dolphin’s than to a whale’s, being able to leap up out of the water.

It’s very curious, approaches ships easily, swimming round or along with them.
In the Canary islands we can observe it from the end of the winter season until the summer.

– Sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus)
It’s the only toothed whale among the big ones. It feeds on fish and big cephalopods, such as giant squids.
She can be under water for longer than two hours, diving up to 3km deep looking for food. They live in communities, either single male communities (made up of sexually inactive young male whales) or baby whales, usually from 20 to 25 specimens, although they can make bigger groups.

It’s the animal with the biggest brain in nature. It’s teeth are also the biggest in the  animal kingdom, weighting up to 1k and being up to 20cms long each.
Adult males can be up to 20,5 mts long.
They usually rest by floating and drifting motionless. Its wide tale can be easily recognized when it lifts it in order to plunge.

Beaked whales
Beaked whales are the most unknown cetaceans of them all, even many of its species have never been seen alive. In many cases we only know about them thanks to studies made on dead specimens. Nowadays 20 species are known, although it’s believed that there might be some more to be found out.
In the Canary Island the most common species are the Blainville’s Beaked whale and the Cuvier’s Beaked whale.

– Blainville’s Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon densirostris)
The males have a couple of big teeth growing within raised bumps on their lower jaws, so they can easily be distinguished when observed. Although it isn’t easy to be seen, it’s one of the beaked whales which offer most possibilities. They dive for very short time, from 20 to 40 seconds, although it can dive up to 45 minutes when looking for food. The Blainville’s

Beaked Whale has the thickest bones in the whole animal kingdom. These characteristic teeth don’t grow on females, although they have similar bumps on the lower jaw, not as raised as in males.

– Cuvier’s Beaked Whale (Ziphius cavirostris)
It’s one of the most unknown members in the cetaceans’ family and although they can’t be seen easily, The Canary Islands is one of the best places to see them. They present a wide variety of colours. Adult whales are whitish (they can be mistaken for pilot whales) and their body is scored with scars. They have two little teeth at the tip of the lower jaw; its dorsal fin can be low and have a triangular shape, with an almost straight rear rim, although on some occasions whales with a more bended fin can be seen.

New born whales are among 2 and 3 mts long, while adult whales can even reach the 7mts. Their colour varies depending on sex and age.
Immersions can last from 20 to 40 minutes.

Dolphins and Risso’s dolphins
Delphinidae are the widest family of cetaceans and they include dolphins as well as risso’s dolphins, killer whales and porpoises.
The image of dolphins is widely known, their beak being their main characteristic although it isn’t a rating aspect. Risso’s dolphins have a rounded head, no beak, and the Canary Islands are one of the privileged places holding populations of this species in their waters.

– Common Dolphin (Delphinus delphis)
It can easily be recognised for their colours, with a dark “v” just below their dorsal fin, or for their pattern in the shape of an hourglass timer. They are usually found in very numerous groups, and their leaps can be seen and even heard in the distance. Their sharp squeaks can be heard outside the water, and their immersions can last around 8 minutes, although they usually dive from 10 seconds to 2 minutes.

It’s a very active dolphin, which likes acrobatic jumps out of the water, sometimes even somersaults.
It’s one of the most abundant cetaceans in the world, with a total population that is now estimated to comprise several million dolphins.

It’s the best known dolphin, usually seen in dolphinariums as part of water shows as well as in TV series and films. It has a very varied coloration, although light may make it look like an even grey.
When they feed, dolphins help one another, and they have even cooperated with local fishermen.

It’s a very strong dolphin that can be up to 3,9 mts long.
They usually jump in front of the ships and they are very curious and active.

It’s a very active dolphin and a wonderful jumper, sometimes jumping really high into the air,  where it seems to remain suspended before splashing in the water. New born spotted dolphins have no spots: they appear as they grow up, becoming really big and numerous on big specimens.

They like following the whitewash trails of boats and they are very friendly, they even approach divers under the water.
It’s an exclusively Atlantic species, and it’s becoming more and more frequent in the Canary Islands.

It’s quite easy to identify because of its typical pattern on its sides. He plunges at least 200mts looking for food, from 5 to 10 minutes. They can make up really large communities, up to 500 of them, although in the Atlantic you find less than 100 dolphins together. They usually join the common dolphin, similar in size and shape although with different colour patterns.
It’s a great acrobat, it loves jumping and performing twists and cartwheels in the air. It can reach up to 7mts high when performing some of them. 
It’s dorsal fin is high in relation to its body size. Its colours may vary from blueish grey to brownish grey.
It’s very usual to see them following the whitewash trails of boats.

–  Risso’s Dolphin (Grampus griseus)
They’re relatively easy to identify due to their body, scored with scars, which spread as they grow up. Their colour becomes lighter with age, although there are great variations, some adult specimens being as dark as other kind of pilot whales.
Their brow is slightly swollen, dying down considerably towards their mouth, where no beak can be made out.

It’s one of the species, together with the bottlenose dolphin, which most approaches the coast in the Canary Islands.
Its immersions are short, from 1 to 2 minutes, but they can remain under water up to 30 minutes.

– Short finned pilot whale (Globicephala macrorhynchus)
The short finned pilot whale is one of the cetaceans you can occasionally see in Fuerteventura, although in the Canary Islands there are resident populations all year round in Tenerife and La Gomera. Sometimes you can watch whole pods of whales floating idly. It’s usually black or dark grey, and its brow is rounded. It can plunge up to 40 minutes, reaching the 1000mts deep looking for squids and other cephalopods to feed.

On their head and rounded brow you find an organ known as “melon”, common to every toothed cetaceans. It’s thought to be useful for their echolocation. They make up pods from 10 to 30 specimens, and they have a matriarchal structure.

FuerteCharter’s Team

In our dear archipelago, belonging to La Macaronesia, we’re lucky to enjoy ideal oceanographic and geomorphological conditions for the coexistence of tropical sea species coming from the North and the ones coming from the warm or cold South.
These characteristics turn us into one of the places in the world with the widest cetacean variety in its waters, no doubt ranking at the top in Europe. According to the scientists and scholars Vidal Martín and Manuel Carrillo (Red Canaria de Varamientos y Sociedad para el Estudio de los Cetáceos en Canarias), in the Canary Island waters 30 cetacean species have been identified, including whales and dolphins.
The first whale watching we have records of date back to the first century B.C; the data were recorded in a text by Plinio about the large number of whales coming to our coasts. Aboriginal remains of vertebrae and ribs belonging to big cetaceans, as well as decorative elements and carved whale bones reveal that these huge water mammals have been living in our waters for centuries.
According to Vidal Martín, the main species we have records of are: beaked whales, sperm whales and the long-finned pilot whales (great depths divers that can dive to depths below 3000 m. in order to feed themselves with great depths cephalopods and crustaceans). There are also several species of dolphins and whales (fin, sei and Bryde’s whales), some of which feed on schools of fish and breed and live in our waters, in some cases even for several years.
The tourist sector is beginning to take up whale watching near our coasts, and according to some experts this is an activity that, well organized, shouldn’t mean a threat for the cetaceans. In the South of Tenerife, La Gomera and Gran Canaria boat trips for whale watching are easier, as cetaceans are usually found in quiet waters, very near the coast. In Fuerteventura and Lanzarote it’s a bit more complicated due to a greater instability of their waters, although this activity is mounting and so is our tourist offer as far as water experiences is concerned.
In our island of Fuerteventura you can find “La senda de los Cetáceos” (the cetaceans’ pathway), a scientific, artistic and social initiative that consists of displaying the remains of the skeletons of several cetaceans on our beaches in public areas, using them as source of information and environmental awareness. This initiative offers artists the chance to intermingle landscape, art and nature, and it offers scientists the chance to study the skeleton of these huge sea animals once other aspects have been studied such as the possible causes of beaching and the death of the cetaceans that every year reach our coasts. We can find some of these sculptures in places such as Las Salinas del Carmen (Puerto del Rosario), where the huge skeleton of a 19,5 metre-long female fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus)was  found stranded on the 18^th April 2000 in the coast of Majanicho (La Oliva).
In El Saladar de Jandia, Morro de Jable (Pájara)the skeleton of a 14,5 meter-long male sperm whale (Phuseter macrocephalus) has been displayed since 2006; it was found stranded in El Granillo (Pájara) in 2004.  Other sculptures in this pathway are Cuvier’s beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris), the short-finned pilot whale (Globicepahla macrorhynchus), considered as a vulnerable species in the National catalogue of endangered species, and a sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus).
The osteological study of these animals tries to reveal if there are macaronesian populations or even exclusive in the Canary Islands, as osteological variations in species that have adapted to a determined area have been produced.

In the trips we carry out with FuerteCharter, in many occasions, we are really lucky to have the chance to watch these impressive mammals that come to meet us, mainly in the Island of Lobos area. Sometimes they approach us as if they wanted to say hello, and those moments are a really incredible experience not just for our customers but for ourselves, the crew, too.

In next articles we’ll provide a classification of the different cetaceans living in majorera waters, to explain the peculiarities of these big mammals.
Notes about Cetaceans:
– Huge mammals who live exclusively in the water and don’t need the solid ground in order to give birth.
– They are divided into two sub-orders: Mysticeti (bearded cetaceans which feed themselves filtering the water-food through their beard) and Odontoceti (homodont hunters, whose teeth are all the same type)
-Longevity: it varies depending on the species; ranging between 30 years in some dolphins and 60 years in the case of pilot whales.
– They feel threatened by the use of high-frequency sonar in naval exercises, by high-speed vessel crashing ferries or freighters and by oil platforms, noise pollution and habitat degradation.

FuerteCharter’s Team