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Piracy on the high seas is making a comeback this year, particularly off the coast of the African nation Somalia, where raiders are using increasingly more powerful and sophisticated technologies to attack ships and hold their crew and cargo for ransom. Technology makers are hoping to come to the rescue with ultraloud sound systems, electrified guardrails and other gadgets designed to help shippers avoid becoming the next victim.

Perhaps the most alarming example was the taking of the Ukrainian ship, the MV Faina, loaded with 33 Russian-made T72 tanks and ammunition originally bound for Kenya. The Somali pirates, who commandeered the ship in September, are demanding $20 million for its return; the tanker is currently moored off the coast of Somalia.

A total of 199 incidents were reported to the International Maritime Bureau's (IMB) Piracy Reporting Centre (PRC)  during the first nine months of this year. The third quarter of 2008 saw reported incidents spike to 83, a significant  jump from the 53 reported in the first quarter and the 63 reported in the second quarter. The reported acts of piracy this year have included 115 vessels boarded, 31 vessels hijacked, and 23 vessels fired upon. A total of 581 crew members were taken hostage, nine kidnapped, nine killed and seven missing and presumed dead, according to the IMB, which is part of the International Chamber of Commerce's anticrime arm.

BBC News reported earlier this week that in the past five years, the number of pirate attacks worldwide declined from 452 incidents in 2003 to 282 in 2007. But it is a different story off the coast of Somalia; pirate attacks have increased by 100 percent in the past year.

Piracy off the coast of Somalia has cost its victims as much as $30 million, according to a paper published last month by Roger Middleton, a consultant  at the U.K. think tank, Chatham House. The pirates are reportedly using portable air-defense systems, rocket-propelled grenades, global positioning systems (GPS) and satellite phones to carry out their activities. It is also likely, Middleton writes, that these pirates are plugged into an international network that feeds information from ports in the Gulf of Aden, Europe and Asia back to Somalia. The paper also argues that Somali pirates may be agents of international terrorist networks.

For these pirates, speed and stealth is essential—it generally takes these raiders only about 15 minutes to board a ship once they are close enough to be spotted, Middleton writes. Some crews use sonic weapons and high-pressure water hoses to repel pirate boardings. Ships most vulnerable to a successful pirate attacks are those with low sides, traveling at low speeds and with only a skeleton crew to keep watch and/or fight off attackers.

One type of sonic cannon that many ships are now deploying is the Magnetic Acoustic Device (MAD), BBC News reported earlier this week. MAD Arrays, made by Costa Mesa, Calif.'s, HPV Technologies LLC, create a loudspeaker system powered by a planar magnetic driver. An array of eight MAD A9 elements has been measured in excess of 120 decibels (dB) at 200 feet, according to the company's Web site. "Sounds in excess of 120 dB may cause immediate irreversible hearing impairment, besides being quite painful for most individuals," Argentinean researcher Federico Miyara, also a member of the Committee on Scientific and Noise Interdisciplinary Ecology, wrote in a 2000 paper.

HPV CEO Vahan Simidian told BBC News that MAD technology is currently used by ships to alert pirates that they have been spotted (and have lost the element of surprise). With the proper acoustical systems installed on ships, MAD could be tuned to create a higher decibel rate that could disorient and injure a person without ear protection.

Other options  include defending a ship from attack. Secure Ship is a 9,000-volt electrical guardrail made by Secure-Marine, a company in the Netherlands. The U.K.'s Cambridge Consultants Limited is developing holographic radar technology that would provide continuous 3D images of the area around a ship to help crews detect small boats sooner and take evasive maneuvers.

It's clear that ships traveling in dangerous waters need to protect themselves. In April, pirates attacked the Japanese tanker MV Takayama with rocket-propelled grenades, the AP reported. Although the pirates were unsuccessful in this case, the strike raised concerns about the risk of fire and the potential for environmentally hazardous cargo being released into the water that would devastate marine and bird life for years to come.

Middleton's report concludes that the most powerful weapon against piracy will be decidedly low tech--peace and opportunity in Somalia, coupled with an effective and reliable police force and judiciary.

(Image courtesy of iStockphoto; Copyright: Torben Soettrup)

8 Comments

1. 1. proadventurer 06:02 PM 11/20/08

   We must free the sea! I am seeking funds to start up an anti-piracy contracting company on the high seas. I am looking to purchase and refurbish a small Soviet era warship to freelance patrol international waters. If you are interested in helping in anyway please contact me. roninbunny@gmail.com Thanks!

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2. 2. hotblack 09:13 PM 11/20/08

   Do I get to shoot people?

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3. 3. hotblack 09:22 PM 11/20/08

   I was kidding. But you're going to attract some lunatics. And for what? The sea is free. That's why there are pirates in it. You sound like you'd like to secure it, which is the opposite of free. Except in politics, where free means whatever you want it to, but usually boils down to "you're free to do as I say".
   
   Personally, I'm having a hard time finding much sympathy, in a worldwide recession, for the wealthiest people in the world shipping a zillion dollars of liquid crack to the other wealthiest people in the world, while everyone else is losing their homes and much, much worse everywhere else.

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4. 4. dugudr in reply to proadventurer 02:03 AM 11/21/08

   Bunny? Try Eagle or something.

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5. 5. KJeroH 10:37 AM 11/21/08

   Along with the non-lethal measures that can be used by the tankers, etc, start moving them in convoys protected by international destroyers and cruisers; organize the coastal defenses of the stable African nations of Kenya, Tanzania, etc; organize air patrols over the troubled areas. Since Somalia really doesn't exist, launching attacks against pirate bases and havens should be a standard and regular occurrence. As you make piracy a greater risk operation you'll end up with fewer participants. Start using missile laden drones to blow them out of the water. There really isn't much chance of hitting a yachting crew by accident. Right now it's easy, cheap and highly profitable to be a pirate with virtually no down side. time to put some adventure back into the practice. While the ocean may be "free" that doesn't mean everyone on the ocean is free to do as they please. While there may not be sympathy for owners of the tankers or the cargoes, the costs are just switched onto the consumer. And the ones put in the most danger are the crews who are held hostage while insurers negotiate for the tankers and cargoes. The pirates get antsy and the crews are the diversions. At least when executives were being kidnapped and held for insurance, they were the prize. The crews on these vessels have no more value than the kitchen equipment.

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6. 6. CycoMike 09:56 AM 11/27/08

   After seeing over $700 billion (and counting) of OUR money going to Wall Street I'm thinking what's a few mil for some hard working boatsmen off the coast of Africa? I say JOIN the pirates...already got my somali pirate t-shirt off ebay and will ship out as soon as it comes in.

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7. 7. fed-up-man 06:16 PM 12/2/08

   Why is it that everyone (nations and ship owners) is afraid to take a hard line stance with these worthless carcasses of human beings. They obviously have no problem shooting at unarmed people, stealing that which does not belong to them and causing harm to innocent people just doing the job that they got hired on the ship to do.
   These ships working in these treacherous waters need to be putting heavily armed guards with a serious weapons arsenal willing to shoot to kill to protect the crews and the passengers. This recent attempt to board a cruise liner, having no cargo except that of human beings on vacation is a direct sign of how grave this situation has become. If the pirates started getting shot at and killed instead of them doing the killing they will either eventually get killed or stop being a pirate if they value their life. These pirates need to be taught a very tough life lesson that if you want to pull a gun, grenade launcher or what ever and fire it at another person with the intent to kill and/or take that which is not your's you had damn well be ready to be shot back at not cry MOMMY, MOMMY THEIR NOT PLAYING FAIR when a bullet gets put into your head. You want to have a mini private armed war with your target then the target with complete legal impunity should be able to defend itself, its property, its cargo and its passengers at the expense of the pirate's life and which the death of the pirate will make the world a little safer and better place.
   This B.S. belief and stupid reasoning that defending my property from a thief that ends up getting killed because they continue to fight you and they keep escalating the force they use in the attempt to steal property that you are defending is wrong. Under this belief, taking it out to the edge, Canadian people decide to annex Alaska well its only property not worth killing us for is a logical step in the courts. Wrong - This would be war, both sides shooting and killing and the winner would not be prosecuted for killing the otherside. Really the same type of deal.
   There is no, absolutely no justifiable excuse for their behavior. They are holding these ships for ransom - not food - but money and lots of it so that a hand full of pirates become very well off. Nations need to start actively, aggressively and lethally hunting these pieces of garbage down and eliminating the threat they pose.
   We have put armed sky marshals in the air to keep the plane, passengers and buildings safe and they have the authority to kill high-jackers - this is the same thing.

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8. 8. Donutz 06:51 PM 1/11/09

   SOMALIA PIRACY AS PER YOUR REPORT
   http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7746576.stm
   your own word for word transcription in a statement by a Somalia fisherman.:
   "We are fully aware of the consequences but the world has to realise the problems we are facing here. There has been no peace for 18 years. There is no life here. The last resource Somalias have is the sea but foreign fishing trawlers have come here to plunder our fish. How can they allow the Somalia people to die? It is not possible. This is what drove us to piracy. We have to do anything we can to survive. The lack of government casues problems. If we solved the problem of government everything would be solved."
   
   Editor, this merely is another example of exploitation of Africa by the rich capitalists of the west and they wonder why karma has now paid them a visit in the form of a credit crunch?
   Airlines pay for their aircraft to enter any country's flight space throughout the world when flying over land. (Some South Africa flights depart from Edinburgh and fly out over the sea thereby avoiding the UK flight space. Those flights are therefore cheaper because there is no invasion of UK air space.)
   If everyone paid for sea space, thus creating safe shipping lanes, it would be a form of insurance against piracy. Obviously then those countries which the ships sail past would ensure that no one interferred with any ships while in their seas pace and the oil could be safely delivered. But no, the ship owners have resorted to steel nets instead which cost a fortune. These nets will apparently disable the props at the press of a button should any pirates board the ship. Can someone explain to me how will they undo the nets themselves? Its a vicious circle and all because no one wants to pay the Somalians for sailing past their country. If they were shipwrecked I am sure its the Somalia fishermen who would come to their rescue.
   When the tsunami hit Asia and flooded Somalia after 26th December, no one paid any compensation to those Somalia families who lost their husbands and brothers and sons in that tsunami. Those families lost their breadwinners but who gave a damn? Later rumours were that the donations were still rotting in the UK because of bad management! It is all one-sided because Somalia is thousands of miles away and no one cares.
   When civil war raged throughout Mozambique foreign ships inundated the Mozambique channel with giant suction mechanisms on board. Their purpose? To raid the lobster beds and crab fields and rich fishing grounds off Mozambique and who cared? No one, they were too busy making deals with sophisticated restaurants in Rome, New York, London and Moscow to serve up these delicacies which they took for FREE!
   

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