The provisional data of the annual report of beaches of the Balearic Islands 2023 were presented.
The lifeguard, rescue and lifeguard services of the Balearic Islands
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The general director of Emergencies and Interior, Sebastià Sureda, has presented the XXXI Technical Conference on Beach Safety of the Balearic Islands, which took place today at the Town Hall of Andratx on the occasion of the closing of the beach season 2023.
In this day the data reflected in the 2023 beach report have been presented, according to which the number of drowned people recovered has dropped considerably -a total of 24 people this year- due to the rapid response of the surveillance services, which makes people at risk recover before exhaustion and cardiorespiratory arrest. This figure represents a decrease of 36.8 % compared to 2022 and 40 % compared to 2021. Since the entry into force of the Decree regulating the minimum safety and protection measures that beaches and bathing areas of the Balearic Islands must comply with, rescue and lifeguard services have recovered 776 lives since this rule was implemented in 2005. These are “record figures” according to the Head of the Emergency Service 112, Joan Pol.
Likewise, there has been a decrease in the number of serious incidents compared to 2022 -from 762 to 671 (411 in Mallorca, 103 in Menorca, 119 in Eivissa and 38 in Formentera). This figure is a good result, taking into account that the bathing season has had many days suitable for bathing, with higher than average temperatures and few days of storm or bad sea, or other risks (presence of jellyfish, marine pollution, etc.). All this and the high influx of tourists have meant that many bathing areas have been at the limit of their capacity. Thus, incidents and accidents should have increased considerably, because there has been exposure to risk, rescue services have been open more hours and the occupation of the beaches has also been higher, both in number of people and days of sun and beach, with a maximum human load index in the Balearic Islands 5.04% higher than last year.
As for the number of people killed on the beaches of the Balearic Islands, the figure has dropped, with a total of 36 (24 in Mallorca, 4 in Menorca, 7 in Eivissa and 1 in Formentera), 10 less than in 2022 and 12 more than in 2021. The number of people dead in the sand was 1, 7 less than in 2022 and 3 less than in 2021. Outside lifeguard duty hours, there have been a total of 9 people dead, 1 case more than in 2022 and 2 more than in 2021. In swimming pools, 7 people died, making a total of 43 drownings in the aquatic environment.