23/08: 2 men on a jetski left from Al Hoceima, rescued to Spain

24.08.2021 / 12:17 / Western Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 23rd August 2021

Case name: 2021_08_23-WM679

Situation: 2 men on a jetski leave from Al Hoceima, Morocco, rescued by helicopter to Jerez and brought to Cadiz, Spain.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the case

On 23rd of August 2021 at 17h20 CEST, our hotline was informed about two man who had left from a beach close to Al Hoceima, Morocco, on a red and black jetski the night before. The worried families did not have news from them. We informed the authorities in Spain and Morocco and ask for information about the travelers. But neither the Spanish Search and Rescue organization Salvamento Marítimo (SM) nor the Moroccan Navy had information about them. In the evening of the next day (24.08.), authorities confirmed that a search operation was going on, and that it might be our case. Around midnight, SM Almería informed us that two people on a jetski had been rescued, but we could not confirm that these were the two men we had been alerted about. Only the next day (25.08.), we received the information that the travelers had been rescued to Spain. At that moment, they were in Cadiz.

Twitter chronology:

24.08.2021, 17h18 CEST: https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1430187694206902277

25.08.2021, 16h02 CEST: https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1430531099537682434

Credibility:

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