Shipowners losing this battle of wits
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HONG KONG: A nightmare scenario has shipowners, insurers, seafarers and naval officers in something of a panic, given a sharp increase in brazen pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden.
The scenario unfolds with the Somali pirates in control of the Saudi supertanker Sirius Star becoming frustrated in negotiations over their ransom demands. They pump 50,000 gallons of crude oil into the water - a fraction of the tanker's load - and they threaten to leave the pumps running until their demands for $15 million are met. To reinforce their message, they toss a crew member over the side, and he drowns in the oily muck.
The scenario is horrifying but plausible. In the Gulf of Aden alone, the huge expanse of water between Yemen and Somalia, 14 ships are being held for ransom, including the Sirius Star and a Ukrainian ship, the Faina, with 32 battle tanks aboard. Rumors are swirling in the region that both ships could soon be released.
Shipowners and governments are desperately seeking successful countermeasures to address what has clearly become a crisis situation. On Monday, the European Union began a yearlong naval operation in the pirate-infested gulf, the EU's first maritime mission ever.
Eight countries are participating in the flotilla, which will be backed up with three airplanes. Ground-based personnel are at Northwood Headquarters in Britain.
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Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy chief, said the mission would have "robust rules of engagement" while coordinating with other navies operating in the region, including those of the United States, India and Russia.
This week the UN Security Council passed a resolution allowing navies to breach the 20-kilometer, or 12-mile, territorial limit and enter Somali waters in pursuit of pirates.
In the gulf this year 102 ships have been attacked and 40 have been hijacked. With 21,000 ships passing through the region each year and only a handful of international navies to run interference, the risk-to-reward ratio for impoverished Somalis has been unbeatable.
"Somali fishermen simply changed their business model, and they've got military hardware in the meantime," said Dieter Berg, head of marine underwriting for the huge reinsurance company Munich Re. "Piracy is now a real industry in Somalia. Whole clans are living off it."
Berg said some pirate outfits were now getting inside information in Europe about upcoming shipments of dangerous cargo and shipping routes, the better to plot and pick their attacks.
Interviews with owners, insurers, security companies and anti-piracy experts suggest that many technical innovations are being tried now, everything from high-tech sonic cannons to jury-rigged electrified wires strung around the hulls of their boats.
Some ships have put on extra crew to stand 24-hour watches. Sonic guns and night-vision goggles are now in such demand in the region that they have doubled in price. Nonlethal weapons like low-impact claymore mines and laser-light rifles known as "dazzle guns" are being considered.
Foam sprayers and high-pressure fire hoses have been used to drench the speedboats of approaching hijackers. Huge floodlights have been installed on ships and gasoline bombs prepared. Some ships are stocking special sprays developed by the U.S. military to make decks so slippery that the pirates, if they do come aboard, will not be able to stand up. Some ships have built - and actually used - panic rooms for crews to hide in.
Private enterprise also is getting involved. A number of the world's best-known security companies, including Blackwater and Aegis, are trying to expand into the maritime-security business. They are offering teams of onboard guards - most of them former military combat veterans - to repel the pirates.
"Blackwater offered to put a couple ships in the water, but they don't have the UN mandate," said Arthur Bowring, managing director of the Hong Kong Shipowners Association, referring to the legal protections afforded national navies. "I've had lots of e-mails from these security companies offering us their services - at vast expense."
The effectiveness of security guards remains to be seen, and most anti-piracy experts and insurers do not endorse the use of armed guards. But without armed guards, some analysts say, there is no real deterrent for the pirates.
"How do pirates in a small boat stop a 30,000-ton ship? It's firearms, that's all it is," Andy MacDonagh, a director of the private military contractor Raven Special Projects, said in an interview with Lloyd's List. "But as soon as you fire back, they are going to turn round and go the other way because they're so vulnerable."
An unarmed three-man team was overwhelmed by pirates who captured the chemical tanker Biscaglia in the gulf last week. The guards, two Britons and an Irishman, jumped overboard as the pirates clambered onto the ship. They were pulled from the water by a helicopter deployed from a nearby French frigate.
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