MarCoLab Gran Canaria: Citizens as the Data Strategy and Consistency as the Real Test

• November 10, 2026

MarCoLab Gran Canaria is the PHAROS demonstration Living Lab for the island. It was inaugurated at the Canary Islands Maritime Cluster in Las Palmas and works at island-wide scope. The name comes in three parts: Mar for the ocean, Co for collaboration, cooperation and co-creation, and Lab for the living lab itself.

One figure from the launch explains the design better than any methodology statement. Two people are responsible for marine biodiversity across the whole province of Las Palmas. That is the resourcing reality any monitoring ambition in these waters has to live with, and it is why citizen science here is the core data strategy rather than an engagement extra.

Function and governance

The Canary Islands Maritime Cluster coordinates the lab, with technical support from CSIC, ICoRSA, PLOCAN and local partners. Related partners include the Gran Canaria Island Cabildo, the Canary Islands Government through its RedPROMAR platform, Gravity Wave on gear recycling, and the PESCATOBAL fishing cooperative.

The lab describes itself as an open innovation ecosystem: experimentation happens in real conditions, and stakeholders co-create the work. Governance follows a quadruple helix of government, research, innovators, education, business, investors and local communities, then extends to a quintuple helix with an environmental dimension added. Delivery follows the five-phase PHAROS Living Lab methodology adapted from the European Network of Living Labs, with monitoring alongside.

Its operating principle is simple enough: citizens contribute to ecological monitoring and marine governance. They are not an audience for the results.

Thematic priorities

Six priorities were set for the lab:

• marine biodiversity and invasive species monitoring
• coastal ocean literacy
• growth and resilience of the blue economy and blue employment
• community awareness of marine litter impacts
• marine protected area co-management challenges
• licensing, regulation and permits

That last one is unusual on a restoration project’s list, and it is realistic. Tourism, pollution and overfishing press on these waters, but much of what blocks a good intervention is administrative rather than ecological.

What has been done

Biodiversity recording at scale. A BioBlitz at the El Cabrón Marine Reserve, the Biotopo de Arguineguín and Parque de la Atlántida put citizen scientists in the water logging verifiable observations, images and sounds, on the MINKA platform. Over 400 species have been recorded at El Cabrón, among them endangered angel sharks and seahorses. Octopus and garden eels have been recorded at the Biotopo de Arguineguín.

Gear recovery in port. The Fisher Guardians pilot runs at San Cristóbal port, with recycling containers for end-of-life nets. The first collection took away 220 kg of discarded nets and gear. A handheld device, Trinamix, identifies the polymer in real time, which is what makes traceability possible further down the chain.

Circular economy capacity-building. A seminar on ocean entrepreneurship and the circular economy, delivered in Spanish, worked through how recovered plastic becomes a product rather than a disposal cost.

Ocean literacy in schools. The lab connected with an existing Blue School and brought 28 educators into a webinar on accreditation and funding routes. Those are the practical barriers that keep schools out of the network.

Protected-area management. The MPA Blueprint Platform was linked up with local managers and government, connecting site-level practice to the wider network question.

Nature-based solutions in the water

Two physical interventions are in place: pH-neutral concrete structures at Parque de la Atlántida, and artificial habitats at the Biotopo de Arguineguín. Both create habitat rather than restore a previous state. That difference matters when you come to assess results, because a structure can be colonised quickly and still fail to reproduce the ecological function of whatever was lost.

Nets, Schools, Entrepreneurs: Testing a circular economy from Island to Atlantic–Arctic corridors

More BioBlitz campaigns, plus workshops on marine litter, the circular economy and sustainable fishing will follow. Logistics studies will settle whether nets can be recycled on the island or must be shipped to mainland Spain. Commercially, the longer-term aim is to turn recovered marine plastic into higher-value goods such as furniture and home decor instead of low-grade material. A Citizen Litter Entrepreneurs programme is planned, possibly with hackathons, design-thinking sessions and pop-up interventions. Blue Schools’ participation is to grow. Protected-area work extends through the BLUE4ALL platforms and feeds ecological corridors across the Atlantic and Arctic basins. Site experience will inform the PHAROS Living Lab implementation guide.

The Real Test: Steady records, not peak counts and nets that actually sell

For a volunteer-collected dataset, the species count at El Cabrón is a strong result. But citizen science earns its value through consistency over years, not peaks during campaigns. The question for MarCoLab is whether people keep recording between organised events.

On the circular side, the economics aren’t settled. Recovered nets stay out of landfill only if somebody can sell what they become, and the distance between 220 kg of mixed gear and a saleable furniture panel is a processing and logistics problem long before it is a design one. That makes the on-island versus mainland recycling study the most consequential item on the lab’s forward list.