On Sunday, December 7, 2025, the tranquil beauty of Tenerife’s Los Gigantes coast was shattered by a deadly force of nature. In a matter of moments, a powerful wave surged over the cement barrier of the Isla Cangrejo seawater pool—an area beloved by locals and tourists alike—dragging a group of unsuspecting swimmers out to sea. By the end of the ordeal, four people had lost their lives, another remained missing, and the island’s community was left grappling with grief and urgent questions about coastal safety.
The incident unfolded at a natural pool bordered on one side by volcanic rock and on the other by a man-made cement wall, designed to shield bathers from the open Atlantic. But on that fateful Sunday, the ocean’s might proved overwhelming. According to Sky News, three victims—a 35-year-old man, a 55-year-old woman, and another individual whose details were not disclosed—were pulled from the water during a major rescue operation involving jet skis and helicopters. A fourth victim, a woman who had initially been revived at the scene and airlifted to a hospital, succumbed to her injuries on Monday, December 8. Authorities continued searching for a fifth missing swimmer as of Monday afternoon.
The tragedy struck while a weather advisory for rough seas was in effect—a warning that, according to local officials, was not heeded by those who entered the pool. Local media, as reported by Sky News and the Associated Press, noted that the pool had been officially closed to swimmers since December 3. Signs and fencing had been put up to keep people away, but some bathers ignored these warnings, venturing into the water despite the obvious risks. Area residents told reporters that many visitors simply do not understand how dangerous the sea can be at this location, especially when high waves are breaking over the cement barrier. "People...don’t know how the sea is here, and the danger of the pool, because there are rocks below on which people fall and can't get back up. It's very dangerous," one local resident explained.
Emilio Navarro, the mayor of Santiago Del Teide, the municipality encompassing Los Gigantes, offered his condolences to the families of the victims and urged greater caution. "We ask people to pay attention to the signage put up by the authorities. It's to take care of and protect everyone," Navarro said, as quoted by Sky News and the Associated Press. The mayor emphasized that the local government takes steps to warn bathers of the dangers and to dissuade them from using the pool during rough seas, but ultimately, personal responsibility is critical.
This wasn’t the first time Tenerife’s coastline had turned deadly in recent months. Just a month earlier, on November 8, a series of powerful waves swept several people into the sea, resulting in three deaths and 15 injuries, according to dpa and the Slovakian news agency TASR. The dangers of the Atlantic—especially in the fall and winter months—are well known to locals and researchers alike, who point to seasonal storms as the primary culprit for such events.
So what causes these monstrous waves to strike with such ferocity? According to Torsten Schlurmann, a professor at Leibniz University Hannover and head of the Coastal Research Center, the deadly wave that hit Tenerife was “clearly the effect of a heavy storm in the Atlantic and a dangerous surf that had formed there.” Nils Goseberg, a professor at the Technical University of Braunschweig, echoed this assessment, describing the event as the result of “a completely normal winter storm activity from the North Atlantic.”
The west and north coasts of the Canary Islands, where Tenerife sits, are particularly vulnerable during the fall and winter. Storms far out in the Atlantic can generate massive swells that travel for hundreds of kilometers, breaking only when they reach the shallow waters near the islands’ rugged shores. The tricky part, as Goseberg explained, is that wave activity can vary dramatically even over short distances. “There are areas that are rather shallow near the beach, and there are others with deeper water. It is therefore possible that no high waves are observed in one place, while strong waves arrive just a few kilometers away.”
While the term “freak wave” is sometimes used in media coverage, Goseberg clarified that scientists typically reserve that label for extremely rare, unusually tall waves that occur in the open ocean and can severely damage ships. What happened in Tenerife, he said, was more likely a statistically normal—albeit extreme—wave event within a group of waves. “Waves and their energy usually arrive on the beach in groups and large and small waves alternate within these groups. It can happen that there is a really big one, and that is quite normal within the statistics.”
According to scientific data collected over more than 30 years, the Canary Islands experience their most powerful swells in winter, with wave energy reaching between 20 and 30 kilowatts per running meter. In contrast, summer swells typically measure only 5 to 10 kilowatts. This seasonal pattern, coupled with the islands’ rugged coastline and the popularity of natural seawater pools among tourists, creates a perilous mix—especially when warnings go unheeded.
Two of the confirmed fatalities in the December 7 tragedy were Slovakian citizens, as reported by the Slovakian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and cited by TASR. Another Slovakian was injured. The identities and nationalities of the other victims were not immediately released by Spanish authorities.
As for the question of whether climate change is making such deadly wave events more common, scientists remain cautious. “In contrast to wind speeds, temperature increases or rising seas, there are no findings that indicate an increase in wave energy due to climate change,” Goseberg told dpa. However, Schlurmann noted that storms capable of producing such waves may become more frequent as ocean temperatures rise—a trend observed in more northerly regions of the North-East Atlantic. Still, much more data is needed before any definitive links can be drawn.
For now, the focus remains on safety and awareness. Authorities had been calling for caution on the coasts for days prior to the incident, and rescue crews worked tirelessly to save those swept away. Yet, as locals and officials lamented, tragedies like this are often the result of a lack of awareness or disregard for warnings. In the words of Mayor Navarro: “It’s to take care of and protect everyone.”
As Tenerife mourns the lives lost and the search continues for the missing, the events at Isla Cangrejo serve as a stark reminder of the ocean’s unpredictable power—and the importance of respecting its warnings, no matter how inviting the water may seem.