Sea Transportation: Pirate Paradise

Archives

October 26, 2009: Largely because of activity off Somalia, worldwide pirate attacks increased in the past year. For the first nine months of the year, there were 306 incidents of piracy worldwide (for all of 2008, there were 293 incidents). The 2009 incidents included 88 cases where the ship was fired on (twice the number compared to last year). About half of all incidents took place off Somalia.

Not all of those attacks were successful. Only 114 vessels were boarded, most of the time resulting in robbery (of the crew, and anything that could be carried away to a speedboat.) But 34 ships were hijacked, along with 661 crew members. Pirates also killed six crew members, and eight more are still missing. Pirates have been less successful this year, with only one in nine vessels attacked hijacked, compared to one in 6.4 last year.

The other hotspots for pirate activity are the coast of Nigeria (mainly off the Niger river delta), the port of Chittagong in Bangladesh and the South China Sea (which has always been the scene of pirate activity.)

 

 


Article Archive

Sea Transportation: Current 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 1999 


X

ad
0
20

Help Keep Us Soaring

We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling. We need your help in reversing that trend. We would like to add 20 new subscribers this month.

Each month we count on your subscriptions or contributions. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage. A contribution is not a donation that you can deduct at tax time, but a form of crowdfunding. We store none of your information when you contribute..
Subscribe   Contribute   Close