The surrounding waters the new lava deltas on the coast of Tazacorte, La Palma, keeps hosting diverse studies of different scope by the national and international scientific community, which represents and converts this area into a natural laboratory of unique characteristics for the development and application of ocean sciences and technologies, the context in which the DELTA project takes place in order to create models for the conservation and sustainable management of the ecosystem.
DELTA is a comprehensive initiative focused on the observation and management of the marine ecosystem affected by the 2021 volcanic eruption on the island of La Palma (Canary Islands, Spain) whose objective is to connect science, technology and the Blue Economy to promote sustainable management, employment and informed governance on the island of La Palma.
Among the activities included into DELTA’s project roadmap, a program to monitor the evolution of the ecosystems associated with the new lava deltas is included, which is also supported by PLOCAN’s fleet of autonomous marine vehicles (VIMAS) through periodic missions. These systematic missions enable to increase monitoring capacity while providing continuity in an efficient and sustainable way to the time-series of this observations set.
The mission is carried out with a SeaExplorer underwater glider from PLOCAN’s VIMAS fleet, configured on this occasion with a scientific payload that will enable the collection of more than two million data points for each of the six essential ocean variables (EOVs) – physical and biogeochemical – scheduled for observation (temperature, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll, turbidity, and underwater noise). This will be achieved through sequential dives every three hours down to a depth of one thousand metres over a four-week period off the coast of Tazacorte, all in line with current international standards and methodologies for ocean observation using these state-of-the-art robotic systems.
The DELTA initiative, coordinated by the Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands (PLOCAN), aims to gather data, analyse environmental variables, establish observation systems, and develop models for the conservation and sustainable management of the ecosystem, including the biodiversity of cetacean populations. The data collected are intended to support sustainable, science-based management required to improve governance of the area. The initiative contributes to and demonstrates the link between environmental observation and its direct application in the creation of products and services within the Blue Economy, as well as the promotion of sustainable employment and effective mechanisms for biodiversity preservation.
The DELTA project has been awarded by the Department of Ecological Transition and Energy of the Government of the Canary Islands, with funding from the Secretary of State for the Environment of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge.
More information about the DELTA-THINK 2025_2 mission through PLOCAN Glider Portal
