31/08 Alarm Phone alerted to vessel in distress in the Western Med, rescued to Spain

Verified

  In Distress

01.09.2016 / 23:57 / Western Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 31th of August 2016

Case name: 2016_08_31-WM116
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to 1 emergency situation in the Western Med
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Wednesday the 31st of August 2016, the Alarm Phone was alerted at 9.36am to a case of distress in the Western Mediterranean Sea. A contact person informed our shift team about a boat that had left in the early hours of the day from Malabata in Morocco. The boat was not in immediate distress and we agreed with the contact person that he would regularly update us on the situation of the travellers. At 9.46am we received a second call from another contact person who informed us that there were 10 people on the boat, trying to reach Tarifa/Spain. Shortly afterwards the second contact person informed us that she could not reach the travellers anymore. Our shift team tried to contact the boat people, without success. About one hour later, the initial contact person informed us that the boat had been rescued by the Spanish coastguards Salvamento Maritimo. We passed the information on to our second contact person.
Last update: 05:59 Sep 20, 2016
Credibility: UP DOWN 0
Layers »
  • Border police patrols     
    While the exact location of patrols is of course constantly changing, this line indicates the approximate boundary routinely patrolled by border guards’ naval assets. In the open sea, it usually correspond to the outer extent of the contiguous zone, the area in which “State may exercise the control necessary to prevent infringement of its customs, fiscal, immigration or sanitary laws” (UNCLOS, art. 33). Data source: interviews with border police officials.
  • Coastal radars     
    Approximate radar beam range covered by coastal radars operating in the frame of national marine traffic monitoring systems. The actual beam depends from several different parameters (including the type of object to be detected). Data source: Finmeccanica.
  • Exclusive Economic Zone     
    Maritime area beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea in which the coastal state exercises sovereign rights for the purposes of exploring and exploiting, conserving and managing the natural resources, whether living or non-living, the seabed and its subsoil and the superjacent waters. Its breadth is 200 nautical miles from the straight baselines from which the territorial sea is measured (UNCLOS, Arts. 55, 56 and 57). Data source: Juan Luis Suárez de Vivero, Atlas of the European Seas and Oceans
  • Frontex operations     
    Frontex has, in the past few years, carried out several sea operations at the maritime borders of the EU. The blue shapes indicate the approximate extend of these operations. Data source: Migreurop Altas.
  • Mobile phone coverage     
    Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network coverage. Data source: Collins Mobile Coverage.
  • Oil and gas platforms     
    Oil and gas platforms in the Mediterranean. Data source:
  • Search and Rescue Zone     
    An area of defined dimensions within which a given state is has the responsibility to co-ordinate Search and Rescue operations, i.e. the search for, and provision of aid to, persons, ships or other craft which are, or are feared to be, in distress or imminent danger. Data source: IMO availability of search and rescue (SAR) services - SAR.8/Circ.3, 17 June 2011.
  • Territorial Waters     
    A belt of sea (usually extending up to 12 nautical miles) upon which the sovereignty of a coastal State extends (UNCLOS, Art. 2). Data source: Juan Luis Suárez de Vivero, Atlas of the European Seas and Oceans

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