Why a Satellite Search Might Be the Last, Best Hope for the Ghost Boat

We’re moving to the next phase of our investigation. Here’s how you can help make it work.

Seven months ago we started working on the Ghost Boat investigation full time—and from the outset, we didn’t know where we would end up.

The search for Segen, Abigail and the 241 other missing people has been full of emotional moments and the investigation has been tough. It’s hard to say how we feel about our progress.

Why? Well, on the one hand, a community of people like you has rallied around and helped get this story the attention it deserves. We’ve found answers where previously there were only questions, and we’ve let some desperate people know that they are not alone.

But at the same time, the deeper we’ve gone, the more we have discovered just how difficult finding answers really is. There have been so many dead ends; bureaucracies of all sorts have made our job harder; and we’ve learned that the chaos in Libya may simply render some questions unanswerable.

This is the reality.

But we are not resigned to it.

Instead, we’re recognizing it and figuring out how to move the investigation forward.

That’s why we’re launching a satellite imaging search to find evidence of the Ghost Boat at sea.

We’re joining forces with the satellite imaging provider DigitalGlobe to run a crowd-powered search of the Libyan coast to see if we can find evidence of the Ghost Boat at sea.

We’ve accessed a trove of satellite photos from the time of the boat’s disappearance. And we’re asking you to join us in sifting through these satellite images and look for evidence that might help us track down the missing people.

Want to take part? You can join in right now.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here’s some background on what’s happening here. If you have more questions, please respond to this directly or email us at ghostboat@medium.com.

Where are we looking?

We’ve identified two areas of Libyan coastline: one on the eastern side of Tripoli, and the other around Zuwarah, in the west. These were used by the Tokhla smuggling ring for many of their boat launches. The total search area is around 17,000 square kilometers, stretching around 8 miles into the Mediterranean Sea.

What are we looking for?

The first target is images of boats at sea. If the smugglers used a small fishing boat it will be hard to spot, but not impossible. Second, we are looking for any oil slicks left behind by a watercraft in distress—either one that has dumped its oil in the sea and floated elsewhere, or by one that has sunk and has oil leaking to the surface.

What do we hope to find?

If we spot boats in the vicinity of the Libyan coast, we can cross reference with maritime records to see which ones are registered journeys and which ones are not. We may also be able to use drift analysis to determine where a boat that we’ve seen might have eventually ended up, if it were stranded. Similarly, we can compare oil slicks with shipping movements to determine if they were likely to come from a known vessel.

Where does this information come from?

We are partnering with the satellite imaging company DigitalGlobe. They have several satellites that took images of the region during the window of time when the Ghost Boat was supposed to have departed, and operate Tomnod, the crowdsourcing system that we’re using.

How does it work?

Each viewer gets shown a random tile containing a small section of the search area, and is asked to mark any objects of interest they see. This process can be repeated as many times as you want. Over time, as more people take part, the same tiles get shown to different people and—hopefully—objects of interest will get spotted by more than one person.

Tomnod’s algorithms look at every report that is made, and help determine which information is more likely to be of interest and is worth following up. It then reports back to us on where we might consider concentrating. (You can find out more about how Tomnod works on its own FAQ page)

How do I join in?

Just get started. You don’t need to log in to get going, and the system will take you through what you’re looking for.

Is this going to work?

We’re making every effort. The system, Tomnod, was developed by a team of high-level researchers who used it to try and locate the tomb of Genghis Khan, and it’s been used in campaigns to map damage caused by major earthquakes, map refugee camps in Somalia, and track slave boats in Ghana. It can make a difference.

But we don’t want to oversell our chances of success. It may be difficult to locate the evidence we are looking for on the satellite pictures, and the quality and availability of images is not as comprehensive as we would like—particularly around Zuwarah. But searching for evidence of the Ghost Boat in these pictures might be our last, best hope to find a concrete answer for the families still missing their loved ones.

Now, more than ever, we need your help.

Onwards.

Sent to our 1,953 followers.