Editing Canary Current

{{short description|Wind-driven surface current that is part of the North Atlantic Gyre}}
{{More footnotes needed|date=November 2023}}[[File:AFR V3 D029 Atlantic Winds and Currents.jpg|thumb|right|The vertical Canary Current]]
The '''Canary Current''' is a wind-driven surface current that is part of the [[North Atlantic Gyre]]. This eastern [[boundary current]] branches south from the [[North Atlantic Current]] and flows southwest about as far as [[Senegal]] where it turns west and later joins the Atlantic [[North Equatorial Current]]. The current is named after the [[Canary Islands]]. The [[archipelago]] partially blocks the flow of the Canary Current (Gyory, 2007).

This wide and slow moving current is thought to have been exploited in the early [[Phoenicia]]n navigation and settlement along the coast of western [[Morocco]] and [[Spanish Sahara|Old Spanish Sahara]]. The ancient Phoenicians not only exploited numerous fisheries within this current zone, but also established a factory at [[Iles Purpuraires]] off present day [[Essaouira]] for extracting a [[Tyrian purple]] dye from a marine gastropod [[murex]] species.

The current heavily influences the weather of the Canaries and coastal [[Morocco]] and [[Western Sahara]], cooling down shoreline temperatures for much of the year and also causing vast deserts on coastlines due to the absence of convection above the cool water. Winds from the vast [[Saharan Desert]] to the east may still bring hot temperatures also to coastal areas.

==See also==
*[[Portugal Current]]
*[[Christopher Columbus#Voyages|Christopher Columbus]]
*[[Madeira]]
*[[Elmina Castle#Construction of the castle|Elmina Castle]]
*[[Voyages of Christopher Columbus]]
*[[Eastern boundary current]]

==References==
* Ansa-Emmin, M. (1982) Fisheries in the CINECA region. ''Rapp. P.-v. Reun. Cons. Int. Explor. Mer.'' 180: 405–422.
* Barber, R.T. and Smith R.L. (1981) Coastal upwelling ecosystems. pp 31–68. In: A.R. Longhurst (Ed) ''Analysis of Marine Ecosystems''. Academic Press, New York. 741 pp.
* C.Michael Hogan, ''Mogador: Promontory Fort'', The Megalithic Portal, ed. Andy Burnham, November 2, 2007 [http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=17926]
* [http://filaman.ifm-geomar.de/TrophicEco/EcosysRef.cfm?ecosysname=Canary%20Curren Canary Current (2002)]
* Huntsman, S.A. and Barber, R.T. (1977) Primary production off northwest Africa: the relationship to wind and nutrient conditions. ''Deep-Sea Research''. 24: 25–33.
* [http://oceancurrents.rsmas.miami.edu/atlantic/canary.html Joanna Gyory, Arthur J. Mariano, Edward H. Ryan (Retrieved Nov 5, 2007) "The Canary Current" Ocean Surface Currents]
* Mann, K. H., and J. R. N. Lazier. Dynamics of Marine Ecosystems: Biological-physical Interactions in the Oceans. Boston: Blackwell Science, 1996. Print.
* Minas, H.J., Codispoti, L.A. and Dugdale, R.C. (1982) Nutrients and primary production in the upwelling region off northwest Africa.'' Rapp. P.-v. Reún. Cons. Int. Explor. Mer.'' 180: 148–183.
* William Adams Hance (1975) ''The Geography of Modern Africa'', Columbia University Press, {{ISBN|0-231-03869-0}}

== External links ==
* [http://oceancurrents.rsmas.miami.edu/atlantic/canary.html Ocean Currents: Canary Current]
* [http://oceanmotion.org/html/background/wind-driven-surface.htm Ocean Gyres]
* [http://www.eoearth.org/article/Canary_Current_large_marine_ecosystem Encyclopedia of Earth: Canary Current]
* [http://www.canarycurrent.org/ Canary Current Large Marine Ecosystem (CCLME) project] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130612224415/http://www.canarycurrent.org/ |date=2013-06-12 }}

{{Ocean}}

[[Category:Marine ecoregions]]
[[Category:Currents of the Atlantic Ocean]]