Canary Damselfish

Photo: Tim Cameron · © all rights reserved

This small reef fish is a Canary Islands endemic found only in the Macaronesian archipelago, making Gran Canaria sites like La Catedral one of the very few places on Earth to observe it in the wild. Males maintain aggressive territories on the volcanic reef around the tunnel entrance, actively farming algae patches and chasing away fish many times their size to protect their nesting sites. Their endemic status makes every sighting scientifically significant — photo records submitted to citizen science platforms contribute to understanding their population distribution across the archipelago.