Following this weekends hijacking of the Saudi VLCC loaded with crude, gCaptain has been flooded with numerous emails and phone calls from different news organizations trying to lock down information on the surge of world wide pirate attacks.

Want the lowdown? Well here it is. The following is a review of last weeks international Pirate attacks posted by the ICC Commercial Crime Service

Weekly Piracy Report

11 – 17 November 2008

Suspicious crafts

None reported

Recently reported incidents

• 16.11.2008: 0430 UTC: Posn: 04:08N – 006:50E, Bonny outer road anchorage, Nigeria.

Six robbers armed with automatic weapons opened fire at a refrigerated cargo ship at anchor. Robbers in a speedboat circled 4 times around the ship and left. No injury to crew.

• 13.11.2008: 1000 UTC: Mamonal ‘A’ anchorage, Cartagena, Colombia.

Robbers armed with gun and knives boarded a cement carrier at anchor. They tied up one crewmember and stole ship’s stores. Coast guard boarded vessel for investigation.

• 31.10.2008: 0000 LT: Bakasi Peninsula, Kole oil terminal, Cameroon.

Heavily armed pirates boarded an off shore supply vessel and kidnapped some crewmembers. Further report awaited. [Continue Reading →]

Artwork by Matt Rota

Our maritime podcasting partner, Peter Mello of Sea-Fever.org points us to this must read article in the NYTimes. He writes:

John S. Burnett, author of Dangerous Waters: Modern Piracy and Terror on the High Seas wrote an interesting Op Ed essay for today’s – April 20, 2008 – Sunday NY Times entitled Captain Kidd, Human-Rights Victim. Please read it. Burnett compares France’s recent show of force in successfully handling the hijackingof the French luxury cruise ship La Ponant off the coast of Somalia to the British Foreign Office’s directorate to the Royal Navy not to detain any pirate because doing so would violate human rights. Pirates can claim UK asylum – The Sunday Times (UK) April 13, 2008. High seas piracy remains a big problem for mariners around the world. Here’s a link to the International Chamber of Commerce’s International Maritime Bureau’s Weekly Piracy Report which demonstrates the frequency, seriousness and breadth of this issue. Below you will find their 2008 High Risk Areas. (Click here for direct access to map.)

Of Note:

• Read Sea-Fever’s full post HERE
• After clicking through the above links be sure to check out the must read National Geographic article on piracy titled The Straight of Malacca – A Dark Passage.
• Note: To view our past post on the topic of pirates of the high seas click on our tag Piracy or ISPS
• In the news: Pirates attack Japanese tanker, Spanish boat in Gulf of Aden

With a large increase of attacks in Nigeria and Somalia, 2007 was not a good year for maritime safety. The NY Times writes;

Last year, there were 269 attacks on ships, up from 239 in 2006 and reversing a downward trend that began in 2003, the International Maritime Bureau said in its annual report released by its piracy reporting center in Malaysia. 

“The significant increase in the numbers can be directly attributed to the increase in the incidents in Nigeria and Somalia,” said Pottengal Mukundan, the bureau’s director, in a statement.

Launched this June the International Maritime Bureau’s Maritime Security Hotline is a confidential phone line that enables the seafarer and others in the shipping industry to report any suspicious information regarding maritime crime, including terrorism, to the IMB Piracy Reporting Centre. This service will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week and will be accessible from any location worldwide.

The number for the IMB Maritime Security Hotline can be contacted via telephone on +603 2031 0014 or e-mail on imbsecurity@icc-ccs.org.uk

Links:

ISPS Phone Line Announcement

Google map of piracy activity this year: [Continue Reading →]