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TheCanary Current is a wind-driven surface current that is part of theNorth Atlantic Gyre. This easternboundary current branches south from theNorth Atlantic Current and flows southwest about as far asSenegal where it turns west and later joins the AtlanticNorth Equatorial Current. The current is named after theCanary Islands. Thearchipelago partially blocks the flow of the Canary Current (Gyory, 2007).
This wide and slow moving current is thought to have been exploited in the earlyPhoenician navigation and settlement along the coast of westernMorocco andOld Spanish Sahara. The ancient Phoenicians not only exploited numerous fisheries within this current zone, but also established a factory atIles Purpuraires off present dayEssaouira for extracting aTyrian purple dye from a marine gastropodmurex species.
The current heavily influences the weather of the Canaries and coastalMorocco andWestern 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 vastSaharan Desert to the east may still bring hot temperatures also to coastal areas.
