The Threat of Piracy in the Shipping Industry | Zeymarine

The Threat of Piracy in the ship diligence

Even though the number of pirate attacks against ships worldwide seems to have been decreasing for the last decade, maritime piracy is still a very serious problem. Let’s take a look at the roots of the issue and the possible sustainable solutions.

plagiarism is an act of looting or condemnable violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically intending to steal cargo and other valuable items or properties. therefore, it is expected to have existed for deoxyadenosine monophosphate long as the seas have plied for commerce. The earliest attested instances of piracy date back to the 14 th century BC in the Aegean and Mediterranean waters, which means that cipher could solve the problem for the last thirty-four centuries .
According to Statista, 162 ships were attacked by pirates worldwide in 2019. In 2010, this number was 445 and the figures actually show a steady decrease for the final decade. however, the International Chamber of Commerce ’ s International Maritime Bureau ( IMB ) figures showed a heighten in plagiarism and armed robbery on the world ’ s seas in the first nine months of 2020. There were 132 attacks in that period, as opposed to 119 incidents in the lapp period or 2019 class, despite the pandemic which caused travel limitations .
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The riskiest waters: Gulf of Guinea

presently, the riskiest region in the populace is the Gulf of Guinea. approximately 95% of global kidnappings are reported from within Gulf of Guinea waters, according to IMB .
In the first nine months of 2020, seafarers reported 134 cases of rape, injury, and threats, including 85 crewmembers being kidnapped and 31 held hostage onboard their ships. A total of 112 vessels were boarded and six were fired upon, while 12 reported undertake attacks.

Of the 85 seafarers kidnapped from their vessels and held for ransom, 80 were taken in the Gulf of Guinea – in 14 attacks reported off Nigeria, Benin, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and Ghana. Plus, both of the commandeer fish vessels were sailing in the Gulf of Guinea at the clock time of the incident .
furthermore, the plagiarist attacks in the Gulf of Guinea are normally happening very far from the shore, which makes a safe route when navigating through this area hard. For example, on 17 July 2020, eight pirates boarded a product oil tanker afoot around 196 nautical miles southwest of Bayelsa, Nigeria. They held all 19 crewmembers hostage, stole the ship ’ south documents and valuable items, and escaped with 13 kidnapped gang. fortunately, the 13 kidnapped crew members were released safely one calendar month late .
The latest reported incident was on 23 January 2021. A turkish cargo transport was attacked by nigerian pirates approximately 98 nautical miles off the slide of Guinea. 15 sailors were kidnapped, and one Azerbaijani sailor was killed. The negotiations for ransom stay .
The Gulf of Guinea is not the only seat where plagiarism is a good problem. Ships have been targeted by pirates in the Singapore Straits, the indonesian archipelagic, the Caribbean, Central, and South America – including Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, Mexico, and Peru .
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The roots of the problem: Why pirates become pirates

We ’ ll speak about the nominate solutions to plagiarism, both sustainable and temp ones. however, in order to find sustainable global solutions to piracy, we need to understand why some people become pirates in the first place .
At portray, many pirates derive from the fisherman. For model, somalian piracy was the end result but had its origins in illegal unreported and unregulated ( IUU ) fish. The fisherman, deprived of their support by extraneous IUU fishing vessels, resorted rather to maritime plagiarism and so a condemnable enterprise was born .
fortunately, no incidents of piracy have been reported around Somalia since 2018. however, the same roots to the problem are now transpiring in the Gulf of Guinea and Southeast Asia. Like Somalia, the states in these regions are failing to control fisheries and their own exclusive economic zones .
unfortunately, it doesn ’ t take long for the people who do IUU fishing to realize that plagiarism is so much “ attractive ” and “ profitable ” as a profession : It ’ s very comfortable and cheap to enter into the market because all one in truth needs to become a pirate is a skiff, some sailors, and probably some basic gear, all of which is mass-produced and promptly available. The likely returns, on the other hand, whether in the form of ransoms or bootleg petroleum sales, are very high.

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‘You don’t stop pricy on the seas. You stop piracy on the land.’

so, what ’ s the solution ? How do we stop pirates to hijack ships and endanger the lives of the crewmembers ? It seems like there are two types of solutions to the plagiarism problem, short-run and long-run, and both of them are needed. however, in rate to solve the problem permanently, the long-run solutions should not be neglected. As NATO Commander General John Caddock once said, “You don’t stop piracy on the sea, you stop piracy on the land.”
One of the first solutions that come into judgment is better coast guards. When we look at the piracy around the USA, we seldom hear about ships being hijacked. The US seashore guard is as alert, master, and well-guarded as it can be. So, in the short-run one might argue that better coast guards would solve the trouble in the other regions as well .
however, a
better and long-term solution is to identify and stop the pirates before they
act. First of all, better coast guards don ’ metric ton transpose into a sustainable solution for many countries, because many countries such as India do not have Vessel Traffic Services ( VTS ) and transport report to port authorities entirely when within VHF roll. relatively, if the US coast guard does not receive the compulsory 96 hrs. ’ notification of arrival a embark can not dock to any of its ports and this system ensures each and every approaching vessel is tracked and monitored. A shipmaster before arriving at a US interface must declare all particulars of his gang, cargo, past history of ports called by the ship, etc. This is a very
effective long-term solution to keep illegal activities away from the area .
There are besides more ways to identify and stop the pirates before they act. For case, if the states can successfully tackle IUU fishing and prosecute with the local fishermen to act as the eyes and ears of the maritime patrol, it would be easier to identify the pirates. The technology might help in this respect as well. The use of artificial intelligence within the integrated maritime surveillance systems, which enable the sharing of data between multiple agencies and ultimately nations helps to identify those vessels displaying high-threat demeanor through satellite trailing, and then highlight them to an operator .
Another short-term solution is to create citadels and barbed wires on board for protection from piracy attacks. however, the pirates have become better and better when it comes to climbing over barbed wires and penetrating citadels .
The long-run equivalent for this solution is to make hijacking a transport very identical expensive, therefore not profitable for pirates. In the end, it ’ sulfur significant to remember that if piracy wasn’t profitable nobody would do it. Vessels transiting bad areas should be encouraged to carry private security or military personnel onboard and maintain higher speeds. In order to overcome these problems, the pirates would need more expensive gears and technologies, which will increase the price of piracy seriously. unfortunately, these solutions increase the costs for ship owners equally well, which is the independent reason why they ’ ra not widely implemented .
Another short-run solution to the problem is the states applying more severe punishments. even though the logic suggests that this should work, most of the states in interview don ’ t have the best political and juridical systems. Besides, pirates excessively form better to attack better-guarded ships. When we look at some of the attacks, we see that they are sol twist that they wouldn ’ t have been potential a degree of administration and start-up capital that can broadly only be provided by the high-value targets of multinational plagiarist financiers. Which makes it an international trouble that requires an
international piracy court.

In short, yes, a pirate assail is an immediate threat and the states, slide guards, transport owners, and even crew members should find better short-run solutions to react to the attacks. however, it ’ second essential to keep in beware that modern piracy has become a multinational paradigm and consequently calls for a ball-shaped solution .

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