Tawdry tourists are banging their grains out.
Sure, sex with a stranger on a Spanish beach might sound romantic — but international researchers are urging tourists to the Canary Islands to abstain from salacious seaside pursuits, as they are destroying fragile sand dune habitats. A new study detailing this erosive erotica is slated for release in the Jan. 1, 2022 edition of the Journal of Environmental Management.
“These practices produce some environmental impacts,” reads the sandy study, which was compiled by experts from the Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC) and Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia.
Titled “Sand, Sun, Sea and Sex with Strangers, the ‘five S’s,” the research examined the effect of “cruising” — defined here as “anonymous sexual encounters, mostly among homosexuals” — on the Dunas de Maspalomas Special Nature Reserve, a conservation area on Gran Canaria.
They found that these same-sex coastal congregations were causing damage to “eight native plant species, three of which are endemic.”
Chinijo Natural Park, Graciosa island, Canary Islands, Spain Getty Images
According to the research, “the bigger the sex spot, the higher the number of people who made use of it, the greater the likelihood of it being a low-lying area covered by vegetation, and the larger the amount of waste.”
Despite the fact that the area is a gay tourism mecca, authors had “no intention to criticize the actions of some of the LGBTI community,” per the study.
International researchers are urging tourists to the Canary Islands to abstain from salacious seaside pursuits as they are destroying fragile sand dune habitats. Getty Images/EyeEm“The ultimate intention of this scientific work is to know detailed aspects of the spatial and environmental dimensions of this activity, which may be useful for the management of this protected area and similar ones,” according to Dr. García-Romero of the ULPGC Institute of Oceanography and Global Change, the Independent reported.
Flinders University’s Professor Patrick Hesp seconded, “No matter what the human activity, popular coastal tourist locations need to closely monitor ecology and erosion trends.”
Scientists are drawing lines in the sand when it comes to these beach-eroding romps. Getty Images/EyeEmThe researchers ultimately hope their findings will prompt better natural resource management and education on the environmental impact of cruising the dunes.
Getting randy in the sand isn’t the only human activity that’s denuding European beaches. Last September, a French tourist was fined $1,000 after he was caught smuggling sand that he’d snatched from the idyllic shores of Sardinia.
