Tourists lay on rows of sun umbrellas on Playa Blaca beach on April 13 in Lanzarote, Spain. Oil exploration began recently in the waters off the coast of the popular tourist destination, despite the opposition of the local residents and government, and environmental organizations. Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/Getty Images hide caption

Tourists lay on rows of sun umbrellas on Playa Blaca beach on April 13 in Lanzarote, Spain. Oil exploration began recently in the waters off the coast of the popular tourist destination, despite the opposition of the local residents and government, and environmental organizations.

An oil rig now floats offshore in one of Europe's top winter beach destinations Spain's Canary Islands. For the first time, Spain has authorized offshore oil drilling there. It's hoping to reduce its dependence on foreign oil. But the project has prompted massive protests by local residents and environmental groups like Greenpeace.

Julie Genicot is a French trekking guide who's lived in Lanzarote, one of Spain's Canary Islands, ever since her grandparents opened an ecolodge there when she was a child.

"We have all the elements. It's very windy, we have tides, the sun. It's a very energetic place," she says, looking out her windows across sand dunes in a protected natural park, backed by the Atlantic Ocean. "You have earth, the fire we're surrounded by volcanoes. And the wind, the sea it's very powerful."

Spanish oil giant Repsol's ship Rowan Renaissance (center) sails off the coast of Lanzarote, Canary Islands, southwestern Spain, on Nov. 17. Repsol began drilling for oil in the area a day later. Javier Fuentes/EPA/LANDOV hide caption

Spanish oil giant Repsol's ship Rowan Renaissance (center) sails off the coast of Lanzarote, Canary Islands, southwestern Spain, on Nov. 17. Repsol began drilling for oil in the area a day later.

Every year, millions of tourists come to hike these volcanoes, ride the waves, scuba dive, or just bask in 360-plus days of sunshine. Genicot makes a living from taking tourists on hiking trips around the island's natural treasures. The whole island is a UNESCO biosphere reserve.

"You have deepwater corals which can live more than hundreds of years," says Helena Alvarez, a marine biologist with the environmental group Oceana, which works to protect the world's oceans. "And on the other hand you have a third of the known species of whales and dolphins ... which live at least part of their lifetime in the Canaries, or pass by while they are migrating."

But there's believed to be another natural treasure hidden deep under Lanzarote's seabed oil. And while strict environmental laws protect the pristine shoreline around Genicot's grandparents' hotel, there's little such regulation offshore where oil drilling began in mid-November.

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Sun, Sand And Offshore Drilling In Spain's Famed Canary Islands