The surrounding waters of the new lava deltas on the coast of Tazacorte, La Palma, hosted the DELTA-THINK 2025_1 scientific mission for three weeks of continuous operation, synergistically between the DELTA and ThinkinAzul projects, and which has been carried out with an underwater glider of the PLOCAN autonomous marine vehicles (VIMAS) fleet. The glider, configured on this occasion with a particular scientific payload, has collected more than two million data on each of the six monitored physical and biogeochemical essential ocean variables (EOVs) -temperature, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll, turbidity and underwater noise- through sequential dives every three hours at a depth of one thousand meters off the Tazacorte coast, all in line with current international standards and methodologies on environment ocean observing through these cutting-edge and efficient robotic systems.
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 Blue Economy to promote sustainable management, employment and informed governance on the island of La Palma. ThinkinAzul is a joint research and innovation strategy with the aim of protecting marine ecosystems against climate change and pollution, while addressing the challenges in certain strategic sectors of the Blue Economy such as aquaculture, fishing and tourism.
Among the activities that DELTA and ThinkinAzul within their respective roadmaps include monitor and control programs of the ecosystem’s evolution associated with the areas of interest, which are supported by PLOCAN’s fleet of autonomous marine vehicles (VIMAS) through periodic missions. These systematic missions allow to increase monitoring capacity while providing efficient and sustainable continuity to the time series of the set of observations.
The DELTA and ThinkinAzul initiatives, coordinated from the ICTS-PLOCAN headquarters, attempts to collect data, analyze environmental variables, implement observing systems and models for the conservation and sustainable management of the ecosystem, including the biodiversity of cetacean populations, respectively. The data collected is addressed for sustainable management based on scientific knowledge required to improve the governance of the area. The initiative contributes and demonstrates the relationship between environmental observation and its direct application in the creation of products and services in the field of the Blue Economy, as well as the promotion of sustainable employment and effective mechanisms for preserving biodiversity.
The DELTA project is funded by the Department of Ecological Transition, Climate Change and Territorial Planning of the Canary Islands Government and the Secretary of State for the Environment of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge. The THINKinAZUL project receives support from the MCIN with funding from the European Union NextGenerationEU and the Canary Islands Government.
More information about the DELTA-THINK 2025_1 mission through PLOCAN Glider Portal
