The General Directorate of Emergencies of the Government of the Canary Islands has activated the pre-alert situation due to the specific episode of arrival of plastic granules (‘pellets’) to Bajamar beach (Tenerife) that was detected at 10:00 a.m. this Wednesday.
According to the regional government, this measure has been adopted in application of the Civil Protection Territorial Emergency Plan of the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands (PLATECA), and following the Civil Protection criteria.
For its part, this preventive activation is carried out to make regional emergency resources available and guarantee the coordination of the services involved from 1-1-2 Canarias for correct monitoring of the situation.
Surveillance with drones and helicopters
In this sense, it has been established an initial surveillance system on the north coast of Tenerife with the participation of a Maritime Rescue vessel with the aim of locating and collecting this type of materials on the high seas and preventing them from reaching the coast.
Furthermore, the General Directorate of Emergencies has stated that This surveillance must also be carried out by land through councils, town councils and beach surveillance and lifeguard services. in other areas of the archipelago in case they are detected in other parts of the islands, although at the moment there is no evidence of their arrival in other areas of the coast of the Archipelago.
Finally, the Government of the Canary Islands has made available to this surveillance network the helicopters of the Emergency and Rescue Group (GES), as well as the drones of the General Directorate of Emergencies and will proceed to analyze the sample collected to confirm their origin and whether the identity of the material corresponds to that of the spill recorded in the north of the peninsula.
