• 5 min de lectura
• 5 min de lectura
Around one hundred professionals are training and exercising in the National Marine Pollution Combat Exercise, which concludes today in Vigo, backed by successful participation and the willingness to combine synergies and operational means to face emergencies at sea to achieve greater effectiveness.
This exercise, foreseen in the National Maritime Plan, is organized by the Directorate General of the Merchant Marine, of the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, together with Salvamento Marítimo, in collaboration with the Port Authority of Vigo, the Consellería do Mar, the MITERD and the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), among others.
A workshop, two drills, and a closing ceremony presided over by the Director General of the Merchant Marine, Ana Núñez, make up this Exercise, which will conclude tomorrow with an initial assessment of the exercise results.
The Directorate General of the Merchant Marine, in collaboration with Salvamento Marítimo, of the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, together with other entities, such as the Port Authority of Vigo, the Coast Guard Service of Galicia, of the Conselleria do Mar of the Xunta de Galicia, the Directorate General of the Coast and the Sea, of the MITERD and EMSA, among others, have participated for 3 days in the National Marine Pollution Combat Exercise - POLEX 2026, which has resulted in great success in terms of participation by expert professionals in maritime emergencies.
At the closing ceremony, the Director General of the Merchant Marine, Ana Núñez, stated that "Galicia knows well what it means to face an emergency at sea. It has great maritime, naval, and fishing activity and has suffered difficult episodes. In addition, it has its own Coast Guard Service. It is, therefore, a particularly suitable place to test how we work together, as improving coordination and resolution of maritime emergencies is an obligation for everyone, and the exercise has been a great testing ground for cooperation and the implementation of means."
Núñez thanked all the entities involved for their collaboration and urged them to work again in the next POLEX, which will be held in Cádiz in 2027.
In addition, the Consellera do Mar, Marta Villaverde, highlighted the maritime importance of Galicia and assured that "we must always be prepared to act in a coordinated and effective manner, as our fishing resources and our coast are an invaluable heritage that we want to protect. The POLEX, where an emergency with hazardous materials and hydrocarbon spill was addressed, was not just another drill; it was a true rehearsal, which was successfully developed."
On the other hand, the Operations Director of Salvamento Marítimo, Evangelina Díaz, indicated that "At Salvamento Marítimo, we know from experience that, in emergencies of this magnitude, the operational coordination that we are responsible for exercising, under the direction of the Directorate General of the Merchant Marine, can only be truly effective if we are able to combine capabilities. In the end, plans, procedures, and means are essential. But it is people who make this whole system work."
Likewise, the President of the Port Authority of Vigo, Carlos Botana, stated that "for us, environmental sustainability and operational safety go strictly hand in hand. Being prepared for scenarios as complex as those rehearsed these days, in environments with incalculable value, such as the National Park of the Atlantic Islands, reaffirms the absolute commitment of the entire port community to excellence and the protection of our marine environment."
This exercise is part of the training and exercise programs established by the National Maritime Plan, approved by order FOM/1793/2014, in order to improve, through the coordination of involved entities and personnel, the response to both port emergencies and marine pollution incidents.
For the first time, a port emergency exercise has been included in POLEX, affecting port waters, involving an electric vehicle on board a vessel, and a marine pollution incident that required the activation of the National Maritime Plan at situation 2, the PIM at level 3, and the Camgal Plan at medium level.
Over two days, more than twenty maritime and air assets from Salvamento Marítimo, the Port Authority, the Coast Guard Service, the MITERD (Ministry for Ecological Transition), and the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) were deployed in the Vigo estuary, becoming a large scenario where firefighters from the Generalitat de Catalunya and Ferrol, safety inspectors from the Maritime Captaincy, pilots, tugboats, civil protection, and state security forces, among others, also acted.
A first training day was also held, with more than a dozen speakers participating.
The national coordinator for marine environmental protection of the DGMM, Federico Navarro, stated that "we have worked seriously in the crisis committees and have advanced in cooperation models for the management of maritime emergencies with the Port Authorities and with the Coast Guard Service of the Conselleria del Mar."
This National Exercise is one of 22 pollution combat exercises that have been carried out so far this year on the Spanish coasts, organized by Maritime Captaincies and Rescue Centers. The objective is always the same: to improve the emergency response system through training and coordination. It is also a way to prevent, since the more effective the response, the lower the severity level of emergencies, which, according to Salvamento Marítimo statistics, are also decreasing every year: in 2025, there were 75 environmental emergencies associated with vessels, almost 25% less than in 2024 (99 in total).
