The bizarre sight of a man being rescued at sea after trying to make his way across Tenerife to Gran Canaria on a wooden pallet has led to renewed calls for acts of gross recklessness to be penalised very heavily.
In images that made the headlines in Spain and beyond, the 37-year-old had to be rescued off the south coast of Tenerife a few days ago after reports of a lone figure drifting in open water near Las Galletas.
Emergency services were dispatched to the area to locate the man, who was eventually spotted clinging to the floating pallet and was brought to safety. He was said to be in reasonably good condition despite showing signs of hypothermia.
An ambulance was on hand to take him from the pier on arrival but he made his own way from Las Galletas harbour.
The emergency services are regularly called out to deal with incidents at sea, including rowers who get into difficulty when trying to cross the Atlantic from the Canaries – at times in unfit or strange vessels to break an unusual record.
The pallet incident has rekindled demands for foolhardy individuals to foot the full bill for rescues, in this case the cost of a Civil Guard patrol boat and an ambulance.
The debate continued yesterday when an Icelandic tourist in his 70s had to be rescued after being reported missing from a group on an excursion on one of the trails in the popular Teide National Park. Search parties later spotted him lying on the ground with head and other injuries suffered in a fall.
The emergency services said afterwards that he was not wearing appropriate clothing or footwear for the hike in inhospitable conditions at over 2000 metres altitude nor was he carrying water to prevent dehydration.
The Canaries have had a regional law since 2012 which establishes fees for emergency callouts, including the use of helicopters and other resources, but it is generally felt that it is not applied as much as it could be even if the individuals rescued have been reckless or negligent. It is not known at this stage whether action is to be taken against the rescued pallet man to recover the costs of the operation.
