March 2008

Lifesaving and cleaning of maritime waters and the fight against pollution, control of registration and flags flown by civil vessels, as well as the regulation of their dispatch, assistance, rescue, tugging, discoveries and maritime extractions, planning and control of maritime traffic, registration and control of civil maritime personnel are some of the tasks performed by maritime rescue (Salvamento Marítimo).

Maritime rescue

The Sociedad de Salvamento y Seguridad Marítima , maritime rescue, was founded in 1992 as an organism belonging to the Ministry of Development ( Ministerio de Fomento) and the General Department of the Merchant Navy. Its organization is structured into Rescue Coordination Centres set throughout the 8.000 km of coastline and deal with all sort of emergencies and SOS situations at sea. In order to carry out these tasks, the Maritime Rescue Service has an aircraft and boat rescue fleet with rescue ships, tugs, speed boats, rescue helicopters and fixed wing aircraft all specially designed for life rescue and fight against pollution at sea. For this last purpose, Salvamento Marítimo also counts with oil-spill barriers and mobile tanks for oil storage and its transport to other parts of the country.

Spain belongs to the International Maritime Organisation, the UN specialized agency responsible for improving maritime safety and preventing pollution from ships and it’s also committed to technical cooperation. Since seas and oceans have no borders, the Spanish maritime rescue service is coordinated with the maritime services of neighbouring countries creating a world rescue chain. On behalf of the IMO, it has been assigned responsibility over an area of a million and a half square kilometres, three times the size of Spain.

The stamp depicts maritime and air units in rescue operations at sea.