What is 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 [[Ocean current|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 (group of islands) partially blocks the flow of the Canary Current (Gyory, 2007). This wide and slow-moving current is thought to have been [[Exploitation|exploited]] in the early [[Phoenicia|Phoenician]] [[navigation]] and settlement along the coast of western [[Morocco]]. 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 [[Purple|Tyrian purple]] [[dye]] from a marine [[Gastropoda|gastropod]] murex species (Hogan, 2007). {{multistub|geo|science}} [[Category:Ocean currents]]