The price of protecting a ship or its cargo against piracy through insurance was rising, he said, and this would feed the reinsurance market.

Underwriters estimate that shipowners have paid about $20m in ransoms to pirates this year, substantially pushing up the cost of claims.

Lord Levene, chairman of Lloyd’s, said insurers did not want to pay ransoms but this appeared to be the only means of resolving incidents. “The real solution is to stop these people from operating. That is what we have to concentrate on,” he said, calling for more resources for naval forces.

Insurers said that while shipowners and operators faced the prospect of higher policy prices, there was no risk of cover against pirate attacks being withdrawn.

“Lloyd’s job is … to take on risks from industry around the world. This is a big risk and it is for us to do it. We have to price that cover commercially,” said Lord Levene.

Wicharn said the Ekawat Nava 5 was headed from Oman to Yemen to deliver fishing equipment when it was set upon by pirates off the Horn of Africa. The pirates were seizing control of the ship when the Tabar moved in, he said.

Wicharn said he learned the fate of his vessel from a Cambodian crew member who survived the gunfire and drifted in the ocean for six days before he was plucked to safety by a passing ship. The sailor was recovering in a hospital in Yemen, he said.

Wicharn said his ship made a distress call November 18 as it was chased by pirates in two speedboats, but the connection was lost midway. The owners, Sirichai Fisheries, had not heard from the crew since then.

Original Post:
Well, well, well. How about your boasts of “We are not scared of the U.S. troops or any other troops stationed off our waters” now? Hopefully you are at least nervous about the Indian Navy who sunk one of your vessels:

The success for INS Tabar to neutralise rising sea piracy off Somalia came in the first major offensive from among dozens of warships from several countries protecting shipping lanes in the area when it destroyed the ‘mother ship’ of a group of pirates after a fierce battle yesterday.

The pro-active operation from the Indian Navy comes a week after it saved two merchant vessels — one from India and other from Saudi Arabia — from being hijacked by sea pirates on November11 in the Gulf of Aden near the Horn of Africa.

So far there has been little risk and lots of reward for Somalia’s piracy industry. With more cooperation from the global community and a pro-active, strong response to suspected pirates in the area, perhaps piracy efforts can be curbed. Forbes has a commentary today advocating for a “coalition of the willing” and also that the rules of engagement be liberalized:

Differing national rules of engagement would have to be better harmonized and perhaps rethought. For example, a U.S. crew can act preemptively only once it determines pirates are “in the act” of piracy, yet they must back off once hostages have been taken for fear of imperiling them. It might therefore make sense to establish procedures whereby an American ship making initial contact with a pirate vessel can delegate interdiction responsibility to a vessel with more liberal engagement policies–say, a French one–or indeed to consider liberalizing rules of engagement.

Meanwhile, EagleSpeak, who regularly links to and comments on Somalia piracy, suggests it may take more than simple naval patrols:

And, as is obvious to mariners, but perhaps not so to landsmen, there is lot of sea out there off Somalia. Somalia has the longest coastline on the African continent and, as now seems evident, the pirates are willing to extend their reach up to 500 miles off shore, that’s a whole lot more water than can be patrolled by 20 or 30 or 40 ships.

Once again I say, as I set out here, escorts and anti-pirate patrols might contain (somewhat) the pirates, but if you want them defeated, you need to take down their shore support. With Somalia, that means that you might end up owning the “Somalia problem” and I see no nation or group of nations ready to step forward to take on that challenge.

“It will be very difficult to copycat the Somalia situation in Asia,” said Noel Choong, head of the Piracy Reporting Center at the International Maritime Bureau in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. “The governments here are more committed and have more resources. In fact, the attacks here are coming down.”

A regional piracy-monitoring agency in Singapore said maritime attacks in Asia in the first nine months of the year dropped 11 percent compared to 2007 and 32 percent from 2006.

Meanwhile, the hijacking of the Saudi tanker is just another red push-pin on the 2008 master piracy map maintained by the maritime bureau, a private group in the Malaysian capital.

The hundreds of pins denoting attacks and hijackings are heavily clustered in three regions — the Gulf of Aden and the eastern coast of Somalia; the coast of West Africa, particularly off Nigeria; and the Indonesian archipelago. But the vast majority of the incidents off Indonesia, and throughout Southeast Asia, are low-level attacks against small vessels, the petty theft of cargo or the robbery of crew members.

Maritime experts in Southeast Asia cite naval patrols by Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore — known in the anti-piracy business as “the littoral states” — for the significant reduction in attacks, and particularly a decrease in hijackings. Satellite monitoring also is used.

I’d imagine this would be the ideal approach to combating piracy in Somalia as well, but Somalia and its neighbors are not Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore. As I mentioned in the past:

An ideal approach might be a cooperative military function among neighboring countries, much the same way piracy in the Malacca Strait has gone down thanks to regional policing by countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia. But considering the poverty and corruption of Somalia and its neighbors, it’s hard to argue against international policing of the waters by the U.S. or other allies.

Somalia doesn’t really have a government to speak of and it’s most likely the violent and powerful warlords who more or less run the country who are behind the bulk of the lucrative piracy industry. Somalia’s neighbors include such countries as Kenya, Djibouti, and Yemen, all of which are severely limited in contributing to a regional police force to combat piracy. That means the burden for providing security around the waters of Somalia and the Gulf of Aden lie on the over-tasked CTF-150 or individual security operations carried out by individual countries or vessel operators. While France and others are clamoring for the U.N. to do something about it, I wouldn’t hold my breathe.

The tanker, owned by the Saudi oil company Aramco, is 330 meters, or about 1,100 feet, long, or the length of an aircraft carrier, and can carry about 2 million barrels of oil. Fully loaded, the ship’s cargo could be worth about $100 million. But the pirates would have no way of selling the oil or refining it in Somalia.

Lieutenant Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, said the Sirius Star was carrying crude at the time of the hijacking, but he did not know how much.

There were no reports of damage to the ship, Christensen said. He declined to say if the U.S. Navy was considering taking action to rescue the tanker.

The ship was sailing under a Liberian flag and its 25-member crew includes citizens of Croatia, Britain, the Philippines, Poland and Saudi Arabia. A British Foreign Office spokesman said there were at least two British nationals aboard the vessel.

The Sirius Star was attacked more than 450 nautical miles southeast of Mombasa, Kenya, the U.S. 5th Fleet said. The capturing of the oil tanker represents a “fundamental shift in the ability of pirates to be able to attack merchant vessels,” Christensen said.

I wonder what the Saudi response to this will be. As usual, EagleSpeak has much, much more. He notes that according to one report, that he links to, that

the ship was not bound through the Gulf of Aden but was headed around the Cape of Good Hope and was nabbed 450 miles off the coast of Kenya. These are somewhat remarkable developments, as is the capture of such a large vessel.

He has lots more on the recent developments of Somalia piracy here:

Somalia Pirates: New south Somalia group?

And in what could be a damaging development for the Suez canal and worldwide shipping in general:

Somali Pirates: Shipping Company Will Avoid Gulf of Aden

For the last century, however, order was imposed, first by colonial governments, and then by post-colonial dictators. But Somali dictators have been unable to maintain their rule over the entire region known as “Somalia.” A government of sorts was always found in some of the coastal towns, which enabled trade with the outside world. But this has been threatened by the recent growth of piracy. Some warlords are taking over coastal villages and running piracy operations from them. Local fishermen eagerly join these gangs, seeing the possibility of a huge payday. This is all possible because of the current anarchy.In the past, piracy was suppressed by foreign navies destroying the towns of villages the pirates used as bases. This is no longer politically acceptable, and no one is yet willing to send troops ashore to fight the warlords who created and maintain the pirate operations. The nations with the military forces able to go into Somalia (like the U.S., Britain and France) are well aware of the region’s history, and the willingness of the Somalis to just keep fighting.

Another nation is sending their own warship to the region to combat piracy: Russia. Strategy Page’s take:

Everyone is curious to see how the Russians will deal with the pirates. The Russians often go Old School in cases like this.

The association says the number of reported incidents has risen from 98 in 2005 to 405 last year including a number of armed hijacks and burglaries around Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam. Speaking at a one-day conference of Dutch officials and business leaders, David Reid, Acting Chairman of TAPA EMEA, warned that without swift action companies will relocate their distribution activities to other countries.

“There is no question that the Dutch economy will suffer if major businesses take their business elsewhere. No single party involved in tackling crime can succeed on its own. The police need the support of both government and industry to attack the root cause of cargo crime and we are extremely encouraged by the positive reaction to our initiative.”

Meeting at the International Maritime Organization at the invitation of IMO Secretary General Efthimios E. Mitropoulos, members of the so-called Shipping Round Table — BIMCO, ICS/ISF, INTERCARGO and INTERTANKO — and the International Transport Workers’ Federation said there has been an “alarming deterioration of the situation — both in the number of attacks, hijackings and hostage takings off Somalia, and the ferocity with which they are carried out.” An estimated 13 vessels and more than 200 seafarers are reportedly in the hands of pirates.
There were reports Friday morning that Somali pirates hijacked another merchant ship carrying cement in the Indian Ocean bound for Oman.
IMO said 12 percent of world crude oil passes through the Gulf of Aden.
There is a need for clear rules of engagement that would enable military assets to intervene effectively to protect shipping; and for an extension, for an adequate duration, of the mandate given in United Nations Security Council resolution 1816 (2008) enabling states co-operating with the transitional federal government of Somalia to enter the country’s territorial waters and use all necessary means to repress acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea, consistent with relevant international law, IMO said. That mandate is due to expire in December, six months after the adoption of the resolution on June 2.

At least one British naval officer says that merchant ships should simply hire mercenaries to protect against pirate attacks:

The newspaper reported Tuesday that Commodore Keith Winstanley said the situation has gotten so dire in the waters off of Somalia that commercial vessels should be armed. Among the visual deterrents he suggested were mounted heavy machine guns.
“This coalition headquarters is advocating that as an option,” he said. “There is a very active debate at the moment about whether or not the international shipping community employs armed security detachments. It is a measure we are encouraging people to at least consider. This has got to be a business decision and its going to cost money.”

More from Eagle Speak, who links to this Middle East Times article.

Pirates use modern technologies and spies to gather intelligence, select targets, coordinate attacks and conduct negotiations. While many pirates are still small bands using only a few boats launched from a coastline, more sophisticated and well-organized pirates have numerous speedboats launched from a larger “mother ship” that can overwhelm a victim with their number of vessels, or cut off avenues of escape. There are reports that pirates operate a number of “mother ships” simultaneously, making tracking and interdiction even more difficult.

Importantly, the pirate tactical doctrine – speed, surprise and stealth, combined with overwhelming force of violence, is the key to a successful raid or hijacking. Pirate gangs are generally armed with intelligence about the target ships, including destinations, cargo and ownership. A sophisticated piracy support structure exists in Somalia and the neighboring African countries, providing arms, trade in captured goods, liaison for the negotiation of ransom payment, and other services.

According to the IMB, 55 ships have been attacked off Somalia since January and 11 are still being held for ransom when news of the Great Creation’s capture was reported.

This week, French commandos freed a couple who were held hostage on their yacht in the region and French President Nicolas Sarkozy called for an international offensive against piracy.

Last year, the pirates had been operating on Somalia’s east coast, but then shifted to the north, in the Gulf of Aden, before again recently switching back to the Indian Ocean.

Somalia’s long coastline is infested with pirates, making the Gulf of Aden and neighbouring areas in the Indian Ocean among the most dangerous waters in the world.

In recent months, a Djibouti-based multinational taskforce has been patrolling the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, where a pirate mothership is believed to be operating.

Mwangura of the Seafarers Assistance programme said the latest attack was evidence that pirates could play cat and mouse with foreign navies. “They are changing locations due to the heavy concentration of navy ships” near the Gulf of Aden, he told AFP.

Operating from wooden boats that are difficult to detect on radar, the heavily-armed former coast guards turned pirates flit along with ease.

“At times when the sea is rough, they are camouflaged by the waves,” Simon Tousignant, the second-lieutenant of the Canadian frigate Ville de Quebec, told AFP on board the ship.

The Ville de Quebec has been escorting UN relief food from the Kenyan port of Mombasa to the war-riven Somali capital of Mogadishu since Tuesday.

The sea bandits, whose numbers Mwangura says have risen to about 1,000 elude capture due to their rapid and unpredictable attacks.

Sky News is reporting that the multinational naval force patrolling the region is advising vessels to stay at least 250 miles off the coast and even then to be vigilant.

EagleSpeak, a blog written by an attorney and former Navy Reserve Captain, whom we have linked to regarding Somalia piracy before, has also picked up the story and is a great resource if you want to learn a lot more about the dangerous waters around Somalia. He links to an article in the Somali Press Review that outlines the attractiveness of this criminal activity for the warlords of Somalia:

The money skillfully generated from piracy has flooded Somali warlord coffers having tremendously altered the market economy of the Horn of Africa. With bride price paid in U.S. dollars, young women wedding pirates have a lot to display in their jewelry boxes. They get anything their eyes covet: gold bought in Dubai, diamond polished in Paris, Lapus Lazuli mined in the mountains of chaotic Afghanistan, brightly colored Saris tailored in India, shoes crafted in Italy, Japanese cars, mansions, electric generators, Arabian sofa, Syrian drapes, DVD and CD players, and assortment of goods in the world’s most beleaguered, impoverished, and war ravaged region.