‘Needle In A Haystack’: Spain To Use Research Ship In Search For Missing Flood Victims On The Sea Floor

Spanish authorities redeployed a marine research vessel to join the search for missing flood victims along the Mediterranean coast Tuesday.

The Ramón Margalef — a nearly 151-foot long vessel “equipped with cutting-edge technology, capable of exploring the oceans with great precision and detail” — will arrive Valencia Saturday carrying researchers, technicians and “cutting-edge” equipment, Spain’s Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MICIU) announced.

The ship will map and produce detailed images of the seabed using unmanned underwater remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) able to explore difficult-to-access areas on the ocean floor, the MSIU added.

The Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), an arm of the MICIU, mobilized the vessel from the CSIC’s Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO-CSIC).

“We have a single goal: to work together to respond to this tragedy,” Science, Innovation and Universities Minister Diana Morant said Thursday in a post on X accompanied by a video of vehicular flotsam bobbing in torrents of mudflow. (RELATED: Flood Survivors Heckle, Appear To Throw Mud, Objects At King And Queen, Officials Surveying Devastation)

Todo preparado a bordo del Ramón Margalef del @IEOoceanografia–#CSIC para sumarse a las labores de apoyo tras la emergencia por la DANA en la costa de Valencia. pic.twitter.com/yZ2VBBB94d

— CSIC (@CSIC) November 8, 2024

Spanish authorities hope that the Ramón Margalef will locate sunken vehicles — some of the many vehicles that became death traps during the flooding that began Oct. 29, The Associated Press (AP) reported.

“It would be like finding a needle in a haystack,” Pablo Carrera, 60, told the AP regarding a search without adequate mapping of the seabed. Carrera, a marine biologist, leads the operation and is head of the IEO-CSIC’s fleet of research vessels.

Discovering human remains at sea is a dubious prospect, Carrera told the AP, adding that the search will concentrate on larger objects not typically found in the ocean. The ROVs would try to find and photograph license plates — despite the challenge of poor visibility and the possibility of vehicles already being torn apart or buried in the muck, Carrera added.

Over 200 people have died so far and almost 100 are declared missing, the AP noted. Additional people may not have been recorded, officials said.

The Ramón Margalef’s redeployment is the MICIU’s latest effort through the CSIC to respond to the flooding, according to the ministry. The CSIC was already helping to interpret satellite images of the devastated areas generated by the European Union’s (EU) Copernicus Earth Observation Programme and data from geographic information systems.

The European Space Agency (ESA) — which manages Copernicus — shared satellite images of the affected areas in southern and eastern Spain. The images reveal the extreme changes Valencia in particular has witnessed since the late-October rainstorms triggered muddy torrents from rivers that damaged homes and swept away cars at at least one bridge.

CSIC and other researchers were on the ground assessing the extent of the damage, the CSIC separately said.

Spain’s Interior Ministry also requested 100 high-capacity pumps and 50 technical experts to help Valencia, the ministry’s General Directorate of Civil Protection and Emergencies said Friday.