On the evening tide: A town that wants its tourists back

A ferry wreck scuppered efforts to bring holidaymakers to Tarfaya's beaches - but not the enterprising vision 

- Cat Rainsford

The Canary Islands are so close that, on a clear night, surfing instructor Salim Maatoug can see the lights across the water. Fourteen million tourists a year flock to the Spanish archipelago, while in the Moroccan fishing port where Maatoug lives, sand from the Sahara drifts in the streets.

"In the Canaries, you can hardly surf because it's so crowded," he said. "Here in Tarfaya we have 300km of waves."

Maatoug learned to surf in 2004, and started running free classes for children. Now he is working to set up a surf club in Tarfaya, which he hopes will employ 30 former pupils.

"This will help the young people not to emigrate to Spain in pateras," he said, referring to fishing boats co-opted to transport undocumented migrants. "Tourists will migrate to Tarfaya."

But the 130km strait between Tarfaya and the Canary Islands is treacherous. Wrecks have included countless pateras and a commercial ferry that was operated by the Spanish company Naviera Armas and which ran aground in 2008 after just five months in operation. The rusted wreck still looms off Tarfaya's coast. The line was never reopened.

"The economy had just started to grow - and then, nothing," said Mohamed Salem Behiya, the president of Tarfaya provincial council. "The key for us to progress is the maritime line."

During Behiya's eight-year presidency, attempts to reopen the line have come to nothing. He is so passionate about the project, he once rented a ferry and applied to operate it himself. But the government wanted competing bids, and nobody else applied.