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THE INDEPENDENT ENGLISH LANGUAGE NEWSPAPER WITH LOCAL, NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL NEWS
EDITION 583
FRIDAY 1st SEPTEMBER TO THURSDAY 14th SEPTEMBER 2017 TV GUIDE
PAGES 25 -32
MOVIES AT ...
FORTNIGHTLY SUPPLEMENT F
property p
PAGES 49 -56
guide
Ashotel hits out at “climate of collective hysteria” over microblooms
H
OTELIERS in Tenerife have reacted with fury over “scaremongering” following the appearance of more microalgae in all parts of the island. Ashotel says it is neither helpful or true to peddle false information about the “blooms” in the sea and say creating alarm when it is not justified could harm tourism. The microalgae seriously affected the northern area of the coast over the weekend with a red coloured slick stretching from El Rosario to Güímar, passing through Candelaria. The Santa Cruz beach of Las Teresitas and Bajamar, in La Laguna, were
also affected by these species. El Rosario took the advice of the public health department of the Government of the Canar y Islands on this phenomenon and hoisted the yellow flag which advises bathing with caution. The Government has left it up to individual authorities to decide what action to take if the microalgae appears in their municipality. The position of the Regional Executive is that the massive
proliferation of microalgae on the coast of Tenerife is due to a natural phenomenon that has no connection with wastewater discharges, according to the director general of Public Health and the Director General of Nature Protection José Juan Alemán and Susa Armas. They say the proliferation of microalgae is a natural phenomenon whose flowering is due to the increase in sea temperature, calm tides and the calima weather and stress that since the episode began, no cases of skin irritation have been reported. However, there have been
reports in the Spanish press saying some experts have linked the microalgae to producing tumours if there is exposure long-term and fishermen have also expressed their concern. The union UGT has called for an independent investigation into the spotting. Ashotel says the public administrations should give “greater clarity” to the situation to avoid the diffusion of the incorrect information spreading over the social internet. “The hotel management rejects the irresponsibility of those who contribute to giving false information that does
Cocaine seized worth 17m euros on black market
C
OCAINE worth more than 17 million euros on the black market has been seized by police in the Canary Islands as part of a swoop on an international trafficking gang.
The 470 kilos were hidden inside 20 sports bags on a boat which was heading from the Spanish mainland to the holiday island of Lanzarote. Six people have been arrested, all men aged between 29 and 54, five of them Spanish and one from Argentina. They include the alleged ringleader and crew members. “The drug trafficking network was responsible for introducing large quantities of cocaine into the Canary Islands from South America,” said a spokesman for the Spanish Civil Guard. The cocaine seized would have fetched 17 million euros on the black market, he added. It was introduced into the Canaries for distribution on the peninsula, with a portion being retained to sell on the islands. The operation, codenamed “Miami”, was launched with the help of Europol and the police authorities in the United States, France, customs officers in the Caribbean and Argentina. A yacht and a fibre boat with several high-powered engines were seized, as well as a large number of documents and sophisticated electronic communication and navigation equipment during raids on three homes. “The organisation had a complex numerical system to encr ypt its communications,” said the police. One of the Spaniards arrested was based in Lanzarote where the 54-year-old Argentinean also lived until moving to South America to organise the shipment of cocaine. Police kept watch on the ringleader who used a string of helpers who had little income to hide his activities and made sure there was no link between them. The gang also liaised with another drugs network in South America and transferred the cocaine several times from different boats, including on the high seas. “The boat spent a long time in the Caribbean area of ?Antigua and Barbuda and took the haul of cocaine on board from another vessel in the vicinity of the Venezuelan coast before going on to Lanzarote,” said the spokesman. Two crew members were found on board. All six men arrested have been remanded in prison.
tremendous damage to tourism, the main economic engine of the Canary Islands,” said a spokesman. The hotel group of Tenerife, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro is calling for calmness and rationality to prevail and dismisses what it describes as “nonsense” rumours. “We must demand and listen to the recommendations made by the health authorities of the Government of the Canary Islands, who are the only ones competent to inform the population about the current situation, its evolution and possible solutions,” says Ashotel. “We will not come to value or discuss both phenomena because we are not experts in the matter, but given the diffused information circulating through the networks, it seems that there are more toxic people out of the water, who are dedicated to circulate false rumours,
more harmful than the possible toxicity of already well-known microalgae.” Ashotel believes that a climate of collective hysteria is being created which many people are adding to as they circulate and spread news without any credibility and without pausing to reflect on the consequences it can have for the tourist image of the Canary Islands. “It should be remembered that all or almost all of us who live in the Canaries are dependent on tourism and those who see this phenomenon as an opportunity to criticise it have no idea how it can generate irreparable damage to the only sector that keeps our economy afloat and on which thousands of families depend, “ says Ashotel.