Over the coming months, the Spanish ministry of transport’s maritime safety and rescue body SASEMAR will be using EMSA’s remotely piloted aircraft services from its MRCC base at Finisterre in the northwest of Spain to enhance general maritime surveillance for a range of different operational tasks including maritime traffic control and pollution prevention.
The considerable advantages of using unmanned aircraft for maritime surveillance have been recognized for several years now by Sasemar for which air operations are a fundamental part of the essential day-to-day services. While the flights will provide additional, complementary means to Sasemar in performing its roles of preventing and curbing pollution and controlling maritime traffic, they will also serve the national fisheries authorities (Spanish Secretary-General for Fisheries) working to protect sea-fisheries resources and to ensure their sustainable development.
