Spanish patrol boat ‘Serviola’, from Maritime Action Units Command based in Ferrol, returned on May 29 to its base after conducting maritime surveillance work for two weeks in the Mediterranean Sea.
The ship departed from Ferrol on 13 May with a staff of 54 people, with an embarked security team of Spanish Navy Marines (TERNOR).
During the campaign, the ‘Serviola’ conducted maritime security patrols with the mission to monitor fishing activity in the area of the Alboran Sea, and exercised control and identification of merchant ships in the area to deter and pursue other unlawful activities, such as migrant smuggling or drugs, marine pollution and plundering of underwater heritage.
Before leaving the Mediterranean, ‘Serviola’ and patrol boat ‘Infanta Elena’ took part in an operation of the Spanish Navy aimed at protection of the underwater heritage directed against the ship “Endeavour”. The operation ended with the expulsion of the merchant ship from the waters in which she seemed to seek for wrecks and her subsequent transfer to the Civil Guard’s Maritime Service in Algeciras.
[mappress] Press Release, May 31, 2013; Image: Spanish Navy