Claim: The Spanish interest in Western Africa, in the desert coast of the Sahara, resulted from fishing activities carried out from the Canary Islands by Spanish fishermen; they fished and whaled humpback whales off the Sahara coast from Dakhla to Ras Nouadhibou from 1500 to the present.
Evidence: The Spanish interest in Western Africa, in the desert coast of the Sahara, resulted from fishing activities carried out from the Canary Islands by Spanish fishermen, who also hunted and traded seal. The Spanish fished and whaled off the Sahara coast from Dakhla to Ras Nouadhibou from 1500 to the present, ranging from whaling humpback whales and likely North Atlantic right whales and whale calves, mostly in Cape Verde, the Guinea gulf in Annobon, and the São Tomé and Príncipe islands.