Pirate activity increases in the Horn of Africa, following a record year of hostage-taking incidents, the following is a situational map of the events over the last week
The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) Piracy Reporting Centre reports, in its latest annual report released this month, that pirates took a record 1,181 hostages in 2010
In view of the increase in the amount of hostages taken, the IMB described the trend as "alarming" and the highest number since the IMB began monitoring in 1991. Of the 53 ships hijacked worldwide, 49 of those incidents occurred off the Somali coast, or rather in the Indian Ocean both far to the north in the Arabian Sea, and down to the south off Madagascar.
Notable incidents so far in 2011 have been the incident where the crew were taken from a vessel, which was abandoned after being disabled, and transferred to a mothership; the Malaysian Navy foiling an attempted hijack resulting in the capture of 7 pirates with 3 of them injured, and the South Korean rescue of the crew of S Korean-owned chemical tanker, SAMHO JEWELRY, which saw 8 pirates killed and 5 captured.
The OCEANUSLive situational map below provides a visual summary of the suspicious activity, the pirate attacks and the hijacks that have occurred between 15 - 21 January. The IMB offers free copies of the quarterly and annual piracy reports at the link.
Vessels are reminded that the coalition forces' warships may not be in the vicinity of a pirate attack, subsequently, it is emphasised that seafarers can greatly reduce their chances of being pirated if they follow precautions as recommended in the Best Management Practices, increasing speed and carrying out evasive manoeuvres is a proven deterrent to piracy attacks.
Vessels are advised to exercise extreme caution when navigating in the vicinity of any reported positions of attacks and maintain maximum CPA with any ship acting suspiciously. Additionally, registration of vessel movement with MSC(HOA) prior to transiting the region is recommended.
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Any suspicious activity should be reported to UKMTO in Dubai in the first instance (UKMTO@eim.ae or Telephone+971 50 552 3215) and on entering the UKMTO Voluntary Reporting Area (VRA) bound by Suez,78E and 10S.
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