Hydrographic ship ‘Tofiño’ conducts survey works in the isle of La Palma.

The hydrographic ship ‘Tofiño’ (A-32), with a crew of 49 people, has started a 55-day campaign in waters of the Canary Islands, scheduled to conclude on December 10th. The ship will deploy around the isle of La Palma to carry out a nautical chart survey on the occasion of the aftermath of last year’s volcanic eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano resulting in changes in the orography of the coast. In addition, other research works will be carried out in the port of Tazacorte and its approaches. Other scheduled surveys include the updating of nautical charts 601-A (Strait of Bocayna) and 6030 (portolan chart of the port of Arrecife).

To conducts the surveys, the A-32 has portable sounders which can be installed on board the small hydrographic craft and barges – like the ‘Narwhal’ – that will deploy in the shallow waters of Puerto del Rosario and Corralejo. For deeper waters, the ‘Tofiño’ has two multi-beam sounders and a side scan sonar. They are very useful to contribute to the Spanish Navy commitment to protect our underwater archaeological heritage.

It should be recalled that the Cumbre Vieja volcano, whose eruption began on September 19th last year, remained active for almost three months. Following the volcano's activity and after the massive lava flow into the sea, it was necessary to schedule this hydrographic campaign to update the cartography of the area and thus ensure safe navigation. The generated lava gorge has modified the outline of the coast and the seabed due to the many sediments.

Hydrographic ship ‘Tofiño’

The ‘Tofiño’ is the second ‘Malaspina’-class ship built in San Fernando (SW Spain) and delivered to the Spanish Navy in 1975.

Her main missions include bathymetric data collection to draft and update the official nautical charts of Spain.