Ship Hijackings Off Somalia May Resume After Monsoon

Posted by Seafarer

August 27, 2009

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Ship hijackings off Somalia’s coastline are expected to resume at the end of the current monsoon rains, which have curbed the use of small fishing vessels and other craft favored by pirates, according to a group monitoring the attacks. “For the past couple of months we have seen practically no pirate activity in the Gulf of Aden and off the east coast” of Somalia, Cyrus Mody, a manager at the International Maritime Bureau’s piracy reporting center, told a conference in Cape Town today. “We will be seeing an increased amount of activity and number of attacks” after the rains.
Worldwide, 266 vessels have been attacked this year, 154 of them off the coast of Somalia, according to the Kuala Lumpur- based center. Six ships and 104 crew members are currently being held while ransoms are negotiated.

The Gulf of Aden, which lies to the north of Somalia, is a transit point for merchant ships that navigate Egypt’s Suez Canal between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. About 20 nations, including the U.S. and Canada, have sent warships to the area to counter the growing threat of piracy.
Deterrence Efforts
Their presence hasn’t deterred the Somali pirates and some operators have taken steps to protect their vessels, including erecting electric fences or plywood barricades around the perimeter of their decks, Mody said. Some ships also use water cannon to spray seawater, heated to near boiling point, at pirates who try to board using ladders or grappling hooks.

Sea piracy may be a bigger problem than governments realize, Helmoed Heitman, the South African correspondent for Jane’s Information Group, told the conference.
“Some people in the insurance industry say no more than half the attacks are reported,” he said. “If you report an attack, your insurance rates go through the roof.”
Heitman and John Weweru, a defense adviser to Kenya’s government, warned there is a risk of pirates targeting southern Africa’s coastline, which is under-policed, and called for a regional response to the problem.
“Most African countries don’t have the money to build and maintain decent security forces,” Heitman said. The problem of piracy “is only going to get worse.”

Source : Bloomberg

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