A Spanish research vessel that investigates marine ecosystems has been abruptly diverted from its usual task to take on a new job Helping in the increasingly desperate search for the missing from Spain's floods .
The 24 crew members aboard the Ramon Margalef were preparing Friday to use its sensors and submergible robot to map an offshore area of 36 square kilometers -- the equivalent of more than 5,000 soccer fields -- to see if they can locate vehicles that last week's catastrophic floods swept into the Mediterranean Sea.
The hope is that a map of sunken vehicles could lead to the recovery of bodies. Nearly 100 people have been officially declared missing, and authorities admit that is likely more people are unaccounted for, in addition to more than 200 declared dead.
Pablo Carrera, the marine biologist leading the mission, estimates that in 10 days his team will be able to hand over useful information to police and emergency services. Without a map, he said, it would be practically impossible for police to carry out an effective and systematic recovery operation to reach vehicles that ended up on the seabed.
"It would be like finding a needle in a haystack," Carrera told The Associated Press by phone.
