What a joke the European media has with tourism in the Canary Islands. A German woman dies after being bitten by a shark almost off Mauritania and as the alert is received by the SAR centre in Gran Canaria, the world press says that the 30-year-old German tourist was bitten "south of the Canary Islands". It could have said north of Mauritania but as the health services there are very effective she had to be treated by Spanish rescue authorities. Tourinews got into the subject on Wednesday: "This is information that is not entirely correct and could damage the image of a tourist destination". The SAR or Maritime Rescue should be more cautious and place things in front of the place where they occur and not south of where they are generated.
The incident occurred at 16:00 Canary Islands time (17:00 peninsular time) and about 500 kilometres from the island of Gran Canaria, when the woman was sailing on a British catamaran, according to AFP. A woman died in the Canary Islands aboard a Spanish Air Force helicopter after a shark attack, "which occurred about 500 kilometres from the island of Gran Canaria." That is to say: halfway between the Canary Islands and Cadiz, imagine the distance. 180 kilometres west of the city of Dakhla (Sahara), according to AFP sources from Maritime Rescue.
If there is a hurry, they should take him to the Sahara, where there is technology for a health emergency of this level. The events took place at around 16:00 pm Canary Islands time (17:00 pm peninsular time), when the crew of the pleasure boat on which he was travelling, a British catamaran, asked for help from Spanish Maritime Rescue, which contacted its counterpart in Rabat (Morocco). They, in turn, asked that the emergency be taken over by Spain, as they did not have the means in the area. Why did they not ask to go to Mauritania?
A Search and Rescue Service (SAR) helicopter was dispatched from Gran Canaria to rescue the woman, who went into cardiac arrest during the flight after losing a leg. The woman eventually died once she arrived at the Doctor Negrín Hospital in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The catamaran in question, the 'Dalliance Chichester', set sail from the port of the Canarian city on 14 September.
