The majority of diving centers in Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria and El Hierro have constituted the Canary Islands Professional Recreational Diving Federation, FEBUCAN, chaired by Marcelo Machín from Lanzarote, with the aim of giving representativeness to professionals in the field and for it to become the main legal entity recognized in the sector in the Canary Islands.
The priority objectives of the Federation are to "ensure the safety of a sector that sees how intrusion, unfair competition, and illegality increase every day, and endangers the prestige of the tourist activity with greater security measures that exist in the sector", they explain in a statement.
The federation also says that its activity "is the most regulated of active tourism activities in the Canary Islands, and with the greatest security measures required by the different administrations, with a very large difference in relation to the rest of activities".
They list the demands on the sector such as having "Evacuation and Emergency Plans in several languages, a chain of contacts in case of emergencies, civil liability insurance with the highest coverage on the market, accident and rescue insurance that covers both at sea and in the diving center itself, instructors with training in first aid, rescue, and lifeguarding, support and rescue boats in case of emergencies".
They also highlight how they have to have "24-hour access to a Hyperbaric Chamber, diving points previously authorized by the Ministry of Development, vehicles prepared for the transfer of clients and equipment, previously authorized, and equipped for client safety, their own normobaric oxygen equipment, both in the center, as in the vehicle and the boat, etc".
FEBUCAN wants to participate in the drafting of the new decree that will regulate the sector
The new organization reports that "the accident rate in the archipelago is minimal in relation to the number of divers that the Canary Islands moves, a neuralgic point for diving at a European level, and the main sports tourism activity in the Canary Islands, with a high level of safety on its beaches, and quality of service, which moves a tourist with a medium-high purchasing power".
FEBUCAN demands "to be heard by the regulatory entities, as legalized professionals with the greatest experience in the sector, and as a professionalized group that always had an important involvement in the drafting of the current regulatory regulations" and asks to be part of the team that will draft the new decree that will regulate the sector and that, according to what they denounce, "calls into question the safety of the sector with greater regulation at a national level, without addressing the "exponential increase in illegal activity".
As a representative group of legal recreational diving in the Canary Islands, they claim a position and an understanding with the current Government. From the Federation, they highlight that this understanding "is clearly not happening, and the Diving Safety Regulations at a national level are not being respected", which, according to what they explain, the rest of the autonomous communities did apply from the first moment, which reduces the competitiveness of the Canary Islands as a diving destination.
