Shipwreck-based blue entrepreneurship in island territories: a case study of El Peñón wreck in Tabaiba, Tenerife. A conceptual and practice-based case study of shipwreck-based blue entrepreneurship in an island tourist coastal territory

Abstract

This article examines the role of artificial wrecks as catalysts for blue entrepreneurship in island territories. The study is grounded in the proposition that deliberately scuttled vessels may generate tourism, training, business and territorial value when they are articulated with appropriate conditions of underwater singularity, accessibility, specialised training provision, entrepreneurial ecosystem development and coastal infrastructure. In contrast to approaches that interpret artificial wrecks solely as reefs, diving attractions or environmentally contested interventions, this paper proposes analysing them as small-scale blue infrastructures capable of activating value chains linked to recreational diving, specialised training, marine conservation, local identity and tourism services. The methodology adopts an explanatory case-study design, supported by light empirical validation based on simple indicators related to market structure, accessibility and territorial infrastructure. The case of El Peñón wreck in Tenerife, Spain, makes it possible to test five propositions: the experiential singularity of the wreck; its shore-based accessibility; its capacity to generate specialised training; the existence of an entrepreneurial ecosystem along the Tabaiba–Radazul axis; and the need for governance mechanisms to ensure its long-term sustainability. The results show that El Peñón operates as a structuring asset within the underwater ecosystem of Tabaiba–Radazul. Its value does not lie solely in the physical presence of the wreck, but rather in the network of products, services, courses, operators, infrastructures and narratives that have been organised around it. The article concludes that artificial wrecks may foster blue entrepreneurship in island and coastal destinations, but only when their recreational use is embedded within a governance model that combines safety, spatial regulation of uses, environmental monitoring, local participation and territorial return.