When he hears news like what happened on Tuesday with the Spanish fishing vessel Villa de Pitanxo, one of the biggest shipwrecks in recent decades, Moncho León Herrera feels enormous sadness and cannot help but wonder how it happened and if it could have been preventable, and more in his case, which has specialized in maritime safety issues when he stopped sailing.
Nor can he avoid feeling concern and “an enormous sadness” knowing that there are people, the fishermen, who in order to earn an honest living and support their families have to be subjected to risks of this type.
The former mayor of Icod de los Vinos and current councilor in opposition to the City Council in the Somos Icodenses group is a retired ship captain. He started sailing very early, at the age of 18, and his first steps as an officer were in America. It passed several times by the island of Newfoundland, off the coast of Canada, considered one of the most dangerous in the world, where the Nores group ship sank, in which 24 people were on board, of whom only three have survived, while nine have died and 12 are still missing.
“The area is normally considered a conflict within the maritime legislation that is applied to the safety of ships. It has an innate danger due to strong storms, the presence of ice and, above all, because of the cold waters, which make it difficult for any sailor who falls into them to recover,” León declared days ago in an interview with Radio Ecca. .
“Those of us who have sailed there know how harsh those seas are, even in the good seasons of the year when merchant ships can enter the St. Lawrence River Estuary, through which Quebec, Montreal and to the Great Lakes. But we can imagine, and sometimes we have glimpsed and experienced it, what can happen in winter, when the ice prevents entry.”
He says that merchant ships, like the ones he was traveling on, “passed” through the area. “Suddenly a wave of cold came from the north that blocked the entrance and exit due to the ice. You had to be aware of the weather conditions,” he explains.
a heroic job
For the fishermen it is even harder, because they are there for months, “dealing with the ice and temperatures below zero, with their hands and bodies wet from the inevitable, direct and permanent contact with the sea and the wet nets. It is a limit requirement professionally and technically quite difficult to understand. Without a doubt, it is a heroic job,” says León, who is outraged by the fact that fishermen are forced “to work in the most infamous conditions”, which give rise to accidents like the one that occurred.
Despite the harshness of the sea, Newfoundland is home to one of the “historical” fishing banks, because it is more than proven that Viking, Basque and Galician fishermen already went there before the discovery of America, confirms León. At first it was the whale fishery and then the cod fishery, and, despite the fact that international regulations have allowed it to be controlled, it is still an “extraordinarily rich” point for new species that were not found before, such as Greenland halibut.
The former president recalls that he sailed for months with many sailors who had been fishermen on the Newfoundland cod boats, who later, tired, got a job on merchant ships. “Magnificent sailors, hardened, tough and reliable, for whom a large merchant ship, in which they could move and sleep for four hours at a time, was paradise. It is sad to think that in order to earn a living, it is not enough for these men to face and overcome that tremendous hardness, but also run the great risk of risking their lives with such high frequency, as the statistics of this noble profession say,” he wrote. on your Facebook account.
León sailed for 20 years, but he was always linked to the sea, as a teacher at the Nautical School of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and later as inspector captain of a shipping company, where he specialized in safety issues.
Research
The Permanent Commission for the Investigation of Maritime Accidents and Incidents (Ciaim), dependent on the Ministry of Transport of the Government of Spain, has begun with the investigations into what happened last Tuesday, a work carried out in collaboration with the Canadian authorities.
After ruling out a possible fire or a collision between ships or against the ice, the only reasonable explanation that León finds is that it was at one point in the operation. “Perhaps to recover the net, which weighs tons and requires difficult maneuvers that make it difficult to govern on the high seas. It is likely that at that moment a couple of strong waves caught them from the side and overturned them without giving them time to react. It is not a normal situation, because the boat has enough stability, but it is not unreasonable either”, he argues.
It is the only justification he finds for the catastrophe that occurred “with a modern vessel, equipped with high technology, made of steel, with a good hull, well equipped and designed to navigate in a risk area such as Newfoundland and to fish.”
In this sense, despite the “tremendously harsh” weather conditions, he considers that the conditions that sailors have to endure to be profitable workers are even more so. “They do not stop the activity despite the poor visibility, the most adverse weather conditions and without a work schedule. They live in a technical and professional situation that is quite difficult to understand”, he assures.
The relatives also point to the same cause and ask that, please, the shipwreck be investigated. In statements to the media in Vigo collected by Europa Press, Pablo More, brother of Daniel More and uncle of Diego Andrés More and Edwin Andrés More -the first two deceased, while nothing is known about the latter-, does not understand “how it is It is possible that the skipper has been working with that storm, when there are boats that are waiting for the weather to subside to be able to fish. Always, always with this. And it has had to happen”, he lamented, after pointing to the ship’s skipper who, according to him, was not the first time he decided to continue operating despite the harsh and complicated weather conditions.
Search
The spokesman for Somos Icodenses disagrees with the decision of the Canadian authorities to stop looking for the bodies, but knows that “it has to do with the rationality” of the Saxons. “If the decision had been made by Spain, the search would have been extended for a longer time, as happened with the tragedy that we experienced in the Canary Islands with the girls Anna and Olivia, in which the Government maintained a boat for a month to find them and finally evidence was found and it was certain of what had happened.”
However, he admits that the conditions in the area are tough for fishing, but also for the search, which stopped after 36 hours. “It is true that in those waters if after that time a raft is not found, it is very difficult to do so,” he points out.
But it saddens him that the bodies cannot even be recovered, because a consolation for many families is being able to mourn their loved ones: “I think an effort should be made by the Spanish Administration to demand it from Canadians. At least to know where the ship is, because many of the bodies are probably there, not having had time to get out.”
Moncho León does not lose hope that with better weather the ship can be located, because the depth is not excessive and current technology allows more precise details. “The Titanic was recovered after a hundred years”, he says convinced. Also, because at sea, hope is the last thing to be lost.
