Somali Pirates Seize 80% Fewer Ships as Early Strikes Work
January 20, 2012, 2:18 AM ESTBy Alaric Nightingale
(Updates with the decline in attacks off Somalia from first paragraph.)
Jan. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Somali pirates seized almost 80 percent fewer ships in the final three months last year as pre-emptive strikes by naval forces deterred attacks, a group tracking incidents worldwide said.
Pirates from the East African country attacked 31 vessels and captured four, the London-based International Maritime Bureau said in a report today. They attempted 90 hijackings and seized 19 a year earlier. Worldwide attacks fell for the first time in five years in 2011, aided by the intervention of naval forces, the bureau said.
Navies disrupted at least 20 so-called pirate action groups in the final three months through pre-emptive strikes, the IMB said. Yearly monsoons also affect the number and success-rate of attacks. Record incidents off Somalia, the world’s most pirated seas, have disrupted world trade because freighters using Egypt’s Suez Canal must pass by Somalia to ship commodities, oil and manufactured goods between Asia and Europe.
“The role of the navies is critical to the anti-piracy efforts in this area,” Pottengal Mukundan, IMB director, said, adding that better management practices and the use of armed guards also helped reduce the number of successful attacks.
A total of 439 attempts were reported worldwide last year, compared with 445 in 2010, while pirates took 802 crew hostage last year compared with 1,181 a year earlier, it said.
Off Somalia and in the nearby Gulf of Aden, total attacks advanced to 197 from 192 in 2011, the bureau said. There were 13 attacks in the South China Sea compared with 31 a year earlier. The number in Bangladesh declined to 10 from 23.
--Editor: Stuart Wallace, Claudia Carpenter
To contact the reporter on this story: Alaric Nightingale in London at anightingal1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stuart Wallace at swallace6@bloomberg.net
