The Government of Spain, through the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, will deploy this Friday in Cantabria more human and technical resources in order to reinforce the tasks of surveillance and collection of pellets that it has been carrying out in this autonomous community since the first remains of microplastics were recorded.
Following the request for assistance made on Thursday afternoon by the regional government, the Ministry of Ecological Transition has made available ten new Tragsa personnel, who from today join the eight technicians of the Coastal Demarcation who since last Tuesday already work in coordination with the Civil Protection and Emergency Service of the Government of Cantabria.
To date, the environmental agents dependent on the Ministry of Ecological Transition have detected the presence of pellets on 15 beaches in Cantabria, as they have been reporting daily to the Civil Protection and Emergencies Service of the regional government.
Together with these 18 personnel who will carry out work on land and which correspond to the demand raised by the Cantabrian Executive, the Ministry has made available a drone to fly over the coast in search of pellets. Although the Government of Cantabria had proposed having five of these devices, given the difficulty of locating microplastics on the high seas, Ecological Transition has considered it correct to see what results the drone obtains and to check the effectiveness of this method.
In this regard, the Government Delegation has reported that the Helimer 211 Maritime Rescue helicopter, based in Santander, traveled yesterday Thursday from the coast of Cantabria to Passages (Guipuzkoa) in a scheduled exercise in which it tried to locate sacks and pellets in the sea without positive results.
With this, 16 flights have been made by Salvamento Maritimo on the Cantabrian Coast.
On the other hand, the Government of Spain, through Salvamento Marítima, has also made available to the Government of Cantabria three Salvamar boats and two tugboats, as well as personnel, among other resources.
Quick response
The delegate of the Government in Cantabria, Eugenia Gómez de Diego, highlighted the speed with which the Ministry of Ecological Transition has responded to the demand raised by the Government of Cantabria, making more resources and means available to it in less than 24 hours.
Likewise, Gómez de Diego has shown his desire that the pouring of pellets does not finally reach the coasts of Cantabria, thus guaranteeing the health of natural landscapes and marine ecosystems. “Protecting our natural environment is a shared responsibility, and I want coordinated efforts to mitigate any negative impacts on our beautiful coastal region,” he said.