The maritime captain of the Pitiusas Islands urges to put "limits" to the charter activity.

The maritime captain of Ibiza and Formentera, Luis Gascón, urges putting "limits" on charter activity as well as promoting "management plans" on the coast of the Pitiusas, through buoy fields.

Gascón, who presented the activity of Maritime Captaincy at the Council meeting of Navigation and Port of the port of Ibiza, held last Wednesday, considers it necessary to "regulate" the boat rental business, with or without skipper, and that each company in this sector can "guarantee" a mooring for said boats. «If [the docking point] does not have it, you can arrive with a boat from any point in Spain and start a lucrative activity without really having roots in Ibiza and without having a facility where you can leave the boat or where you can embark and disembark at the same time. people in a civilized way," he points out.

Even so, the highest maritime authority in the Pitiusas is aware that the law is "very lax" and a responsible declaration is enough to put an activity of this nature into operation, hence the need to regulate the sector. "very good" because, otherwise, he points out, "all administrations will continue to be hopelessly saturated."

And Gascón points out that the fact of not having a guaranteed docking point means that these vessels endanger "maritime security", in addition to nature "being resentful of this pressure." As an example, the maritime captain indicates that, after some storms, they have been forced to tow, together with Salvamento Marítimo, boats without mooring "and we have nowhere to deliver them" because there is no guaranteed docking point.

The person in charge of the Maritime Captaincy points out that this type of charter, without a fixed place to moor, is an "offence" for those businessmen who do have it and who pay throughout the year to have their boats safe.

In relation to this absence of docking points, Gascón points out that "management plans" must be promoted along the entire coast, using buoy fields, in order to have anchorages "in an orderly manner."

"We know that nautical pressure is guaranteed because the Balearic Islands are very attractive," he reflects, which is why it is necessary for administrations to invest "a lot in human and technical resources." In fact, at the meeting of the Navigation and Port Council, the maritime captain pointed out that recreational nautical pressure cannot be reduced, "but what we can do is control maritime spaces more efficiently."

Load studies

Thus, he points to the obligation to take measures that "speak to capacity thresholds", that is, to put a ceiling on the number of vessels and study the load that the coastline can assume.

And, according to the maritime authority, maritime density is "atrocious", after the Jovellanos Comprehensive Maritime Safety Center, in Asturias, took a 'time lapse' - a sequence of photographs - of the traffic maritime between islands one day in August. "The density is outrageous and before the Navigation Council I explained that it was overwhelming," he points out, while ensuring that he opposes the coastline being saturated with boats, after a summer in which, in his opinion, there has been There has been “more traffic than ever.”

In another order of things, the number of incidents attended to has decreased to 136, compared to 197 last year or the 203 registered in 2021. This reduction, according to the maritime captain, is due to the campaigns carried out since different maritime organizations related to safety, but in no case to the reduction of the influx of vessels.

Source: Diario de Ibiza +