Early detection of hydrocarbons in the marine environment

The adoption and execution of the necessary measures to face up the environmental exigencies that the ports and their structures require have been the key issues for the monitoring of Las Palmas port, protected by the main guides, directions and techniques recommended in the International treaties related to the protection of the Marine Environment and the National environmental legislation. The main objective of the study addressed the development of a useful tool for ports, protected areas or especially vulnerable zones, with the aim to guarantee their waters quality; furthermore, to be able to provide information on the presence of a possible spill with the sufficient rapidity previously to the environmental disaster. The data obtained has revealed the good quality of waters, with almost absolute absence of fuels (diesel, gasoline, bilge waters); in the cases in which they were detected, there appeared very small concentrations (of the order of a few traces), insufficient to activate the warning alarms that ports have to activate the responsible personnel in charge of the control and mitigation of spills.