13/10: Group in distress in the Alboran Sea

14.10.2023 / 14:37 / Western Mediterranean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 13th of October 2023
Case name: 2023_10_13-WM067
Situation: Sailing boat alerts Alarm Phone to a group of travellers in distress in the Alboran Sea
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Alboran Sea

Summary of the Case: On the 13th of October, a person on a sailing boat alerted the Alarm Phone shift team to a group of travellers in distress in the Alboran sea. The group of 14 people travelled on a fiberglass boat and had problems with their engine, which did not work anymore. The shift team could not reach the travellers on the boat, but the person on the sailing boat remained near the boat in distress and in contact with the shift team. The shift team forwarded the information to the Spanish search and rescue organization Salvamento Maritimo, that said that they could not come quickly due to multiple rescue operations. The person on the sailing boat told us later that afternoon that the weather would soon change and that it would not be able to stay there for long. In the end, the group distress was rescued by Salvamento Maritimo.

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