9781422277157

Most modern pirate attacks occur in tropical waters especially around the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Yet, it was in the waters off Somalia in 2008 and 2009 that pirates ran wild. When the Somali government collapsed in 1991, it left the country in economic shambles. Former fishermen, as well as career criminals, armed themselves and took to the sea in stolen trawlers and fiberglass boats called “skiffs.” By 2008, these bandits had hijacked 44 large commercial vessels, nearly four times the number the year before. The average ransom demand for the ships went from a few thousand dollars to millions of dollars. Most Somali pirates stalk the Gulf of Aden, which empties into the Indian Ocean. The gulf is among the busiest and most important trade routes in the world. Each year 30,000 vessels ply its waters carrying goods to Europe, Asia, and North and South America. During the first half of 2009, Somali pirates attacked about a ship a day in the gulf and along the eastern Somali coast, as they transformed themselves from a series of rag-tag bandits into a sophisticated criminal enterprise. During Pirates at Large In 2017, there were 180 reported incidents of piracy on the high seas, according to the International Marine Bureau, an organization that tracks such things. Some of the victim ships were as large as container vessels and as small as yachts. Dozens of attacks or attempts to take a ship are still reported monthly to international officials.

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