Hi everyone! 

We hope you’re ready for a new batch of challenges! This month we’re taking a three-dimensional approach to open source investigations. 

We’ll also discuss last month’s challenges which focused on maritime open source techniques. Bellingcat investigator Michael Colborne managed to stay afloat in his attempts to solve the nautical puzzles. Watch how he managed to do so on our livestream recording.

November Challenge - Shifting Perspectives

A few months back, one of our community members shared an interesting geolocation exercise on our Discord server. They had created a 3D model of a real-world location and challenged others to figure out where it was. Without a normal picture to analyse, participants had to approach geolocating it in a completely new way. We therefore thought this would make for a perfect theme for our challenges…

Jae Lo Presti is a CI/CD consultant who works on the development team of a VR platform, which is how they became interested in 3D scanning and photogrammetry. They created five different 3D scans for you to geolocate this month.

3D modelling and photogrammetry can be useful skills for open source researchers. By way of example, Bellingcat investigators used 3D models to identify the missile used to attack a Ukrainian Children's hospital in 2024. We also used it to geolocate the apartment of an alleged cartel member who was living in the world’s tallest building. Earlier this year, meanwhile, we used drone video footage to create a photogrammetry model that allowed readers to explore the scale of destruction in two neighbourhoods in Gaza. 

So, think you’re ready? Find the latest challenges here. 

Thanks again to Jae for creating these challenges - read more about their work on their blog and on BlueSky.

If you get stuck, make sure to join our Discord server to discuss the challenges with others!

This month, our researcher Kolina Koltai will take on the challenges live on our YouTube channel. Make sure to tune in on November 19 at 5pm CET (one week later than our usual schedule!) to see how she does…

October’s Oceans of Evidence

SPOILER ALERT: From this point on, we’ll be discussing last month’s challenges. If you still plan to complete them, you may want to skip this section.

Here are the answers to the “Oceans of Evidence” challenges:

1. MZBEW 

2. APM 19

3. 161132 

4. 4.6

5. 07105 07116 13101 13105

Thanks again to everyone who shared their insights with us, whether it was on Discord, our social media channels, or in your own blog posts or videos. We’ll highlight some of our favourites here.

Your Approaches

Mohamed Magdi Abozeid turned to LinkedIn to share his approach to ‘Strait Through’. They got the name of the ship through the X account of photographer and ship tracker Yörük Işık. From the information in Yörük’s post, they knew they were looking for a ship called Irtysh sailing under the Russian flag. He found myShipTracking, a website that publicly lists most ports a ship has visited in the past year. He found that Irtysh registered at only one African port called BEIRA. On Marine Traffic, he found that the UN/LOCODE code for the port is: MZBEW.

Curious about MMSI and IMO numbers, or what UN/LOCODE means? If you want to learn more about important definitions in maritime research, it’s helpful to take a look at Effenok’s first write-up of this month. She provides a lot of background information that will help you get started. 

During your search, you might have noticed that the Irtysh was also the subject of one of our recent investigations. You can read that investigation here:

For ‘Terminal Difficulty’, Ronn13_OSINT began by noting visual clues in the picture. The spanish-style architecture, harbour cranes and palm trees were good starting points. They made a list of potential ports that could have palm trees, and narrowed it down to the Port of Los Angeles by using reverse image search. They matched the cranes’ layout to the APM Terminals Pacific, using Google Earth and the Port of Los Angeles terminal map. They then confirmed the exact location that the photo was taken from by matching the features of the visible building, and dock layout. 

‘Frozen Assets’ was also solved by Ronn13_OSINT, who started off with a reverse image search to discover the location of the satellite photo. They then used Copernicus browser to find the date listed in the challenge and confirmed the location of the photo to Vladivostok, Russia. With a search query derived from the challenges prompt, he found a website about US sanctions related to the delivery of power modules to Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 project. The US Department of State website listed sanctioned vessels and their IMO numbers. The IMO number could be entered into the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping, which confirmed the vessel’s current name and its registration number. 

In ‘Cable Conundrum’ Faaiz Kaleem started by identifying the location of the restriction zone shown in the photo to Al Ruwais, Qatar. This could be confirmed by comparing the shapes of the coastlines and nearby islands on Google Maps. They then turned to Global Fishing Watch (GFW), a useful platform that allows you to examine which vessels were present at that location around the date mentioned in the challenge. They identified the Posh Endeavour, a ship that was conducting cable-laying operations. By searching for the ship on Google, they found data relating to the vessel’s technical specifications, which included the minimum draft, which was the final answer to the challenge. 

Global Fishing watch was a platform frequently used by people solving the challenges. Effenok took the effort to write a short guide about her experience in using GFW for the challenges, which is definitely worth checking out.

For ‘Zombies!’, Effenok first identified the location depicted in the challenge photo. Then they used GFW to identify vessels named Brave M that were active around the dates in the challenge. One vessel with this name was present at the location and on the dates of the photo in the challenges. The IMO number of this ship is 9213301 - this number is a unique identification number for a ship. They then started to look for the original vessel that used the same IMO number before it was dismantled. Googling the IMO number and “broken up” “filetype:pdf” (this allows you to search specifically for PDF documents), they found a ship called Prada, which was sold for demolition. The timing matched the challenge description. In the Bellingcat toolkit they then found a tool that could be used to check for the vessel’s detention records. Using Tokyo MOU’s PSC Database, they found the deficiency codes that caused the detention. 

Want to follow someone tackling the challenges live and get some extra insights from last month’s challenge creator? Make sure to watch the recording of our livestream with Michael Colborne and Tomi McCluskey:

That’s it for this month’s Bellingcat Challenge Newsletter. We’d love to hear your feedback on the challenges. Join us on Discord and let us know if you have ideas for future challenges.

If someone forwarded this newsletter to you and you’d like to subscribe, you can do that here.

And Finally…

GeoPeter continues to take on the Bellingcat Challenges on his YouTube channel! Check out his latest video, where he skilfully tackles three of our older challenges:

That’s it for this month’s Bellingcat Challenge Newsletter. We’d love to hear your feedback on the challenges. Join us on Discord and let us know if you have ideas for future challenges.

If someone forwarded this newsletter to you and you’d like to subscribe, you can do that here.

Elsewhere on Bellingcat

Before we go, here are some links to other exciting projects from Bellingcat:

• ‘Pattern of Extreme Brutality’: Tear Gas, Pepper Balls Among Weapons Deployed Against Protesters in Illinois 

• Russia’s Grain Smuggling Fleet Continues Undeterred 

• How a Former Political Hopeful Helps Russian Neo-Nazi Group Rusich Sell its Online Merch

• Wildfires Ravage One of Africa’s Largest Nature Reserves

• Australian Cocaine Pilot Killed in Brazil Plane Crash Linked to Kinahan Drug Cartel

See you next month!