Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (EFE).- More than half of the emergencies attended by Maritime Rescue in 2022, 55%, focused on helping recreational boaters, the target audience of the new awareness campaign of Ministry of Transport, which seeks to promote respect for regulations to reduce accidents.
Under the slogan “Respecting the rules, you will enjoy it safely”, the campaign was presented this Monday at the headquarters of the Gran Canaria Yacht Club by the general director of the Merchant Navy, Benito Núñez, and the director of Maritime Rescue, José Luis Garcia Lena.
In this way, they have detailed that, in addition to that 55%, 21% corresponds to rescues related to immigration and the rescue of small boats, while the rest is due to incidents related to merchant, fishing and other types of ships.
Benito Núñez has highlighted that although Spain is a country with a great maritime tradition, since the pandemic recreational activities at sea have increased “substantially”, not only in the usual modality with boats, but also nautical modalities such as jet skis, kayaks or windsurfing.
In his opinion, people who carry out this type of activity should be aware that they can enjoy complying with safety regulations because accidents at sea “usually have serious consequences for people and that is what we try to avoid”.
Asked if the increase after the pandemic has led to a greater number of accidents, Núñez pointed out that “not necessarily”.
“It must be taken into account that there are more and more people living in the same maritime spaces and that can generate dangerous situations. If everyone at sea tends to behave according to the rules and with a little awareness that it is an activity that carries risks, because the sea is a dangerous environment, we will ensure that accidents are as few as possible”, he considered .
As for global figures, on the Spanish coasts between June and September of last year alone, some 5,200 people needed assistance from Maritime Rescue in more than 2,000 emergencies, data slightly lower than that of the summer of 2021.
Specifically in the Canary Islands, Salvamento assisted 238 users and 87 recreational boats and served another 65 people.
The Civil Guard, for its part, detected more than 1,500 violations of jet skis, mainly related to insurance and navigation zones and periods, with a total of 1,128 sanction proposals for sports and recreational boats related to the title, the policy and certificate of navigability.
The head of the Maritime Police Unit of the Civil Guard, Miguel Salom, stressed that during the summer season this activity increases, “subject to extensive regulatory regulations that must be enforced at this time of year to avoid greater risks.” . EFE