Tourists having sex in the dunes is ruining a Spanish beach
CTV
Overtourism is regularly blamed for choking historic cities, covering world-famous sights in trash, and killing local life in tourist hotspots across the world. Now tourists having sex is said to be behind the gradual destruction of a beach and nature reserve in Europe.
The Dunas de Maspalomas Special Nature Reserve, on the Spanish island of Gran Canaria, is known for its wild sand dunes rippling out behind its lighthouse perched on the seafront, and regularly tops the lists of things to see on the island.
Its dunes -- which have been legally protected since 1982 -- are one of the last remaining shifting dune systems in Europe, provide a resting spot for birds migrating between Africa and Europe.
But now it's providing a different kind of rest spot, with tourists taking to the dunes to get frisky.
A new paper in the Journal of Environmental Management -- "Sand, Sun, Sea and Sex with Strangers, the 'five S's. Characterizing 'cruising' activity and its environmental impacts on a protected coastal dunefield" -- looks for the first time at the environmental impact on the coastal reserve being used as a cruising area.