The Sea Gives No Answers: Three Years Without Mari Carmen, the Worker Who Disappeared on the Oceanographic Vessel 'García del Cid'

The García del Cid was an old oceanographic vessel, built in the shipyards of Tarragona and launched in 1979, which was already in a state of technical obsolescence. In September 2023, it departed from the port of Barcelona to carry out a ten-day campaign in the Mediterranean, with the aim of conducting bio-optical measurements, evaluating the biological properties of water and how these affect the light that passes through or exits the sea. In addition, the ship was investigating the area closest to the Casablanca platform, a station of the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission. The crew consisted of 14 members, in addition to 12 scientists on board, including Spanish, Italian, and French researchers. Three years have passed since the disappearance of Mari Carmen, a worker on the vessel, without the sea having given answers about what happened.