1. That all vulnerable ships follow the lead of major industry tanker and other members and route vessels via the Cape.  BIMCO is acutely aware that Pirates will identify this action and swiftly relocate onto the traditional direct trade route via the Cormoros Gap (where the Sirius Star was attacked). BIMCO has advised members urgently to route vessels east of Madagascar and take advantage of varying routes to maximise the sea area to hide during transit. For those BIMCO Owner Members that continue to trade via the Gulf of Aden (GOA) BIMCO has provided very specific advice on action to take prior to transit, during transit and if attacked. BIMCO has also issued advice that it may be difficult to rely on war clauses, even if they include reference to piracy. At any rate ship owners are strongly recommended to consult their P&I Club. Practical guidance can be found at www.bimco.org.
2. That the international community urgently address the co-ordination of naval assets offered up to maximise deterrent value in the GOA area. BIMCO appreciates that there are limited resources and that these are expensive. It notes, however, the success of navies in reducing the numbers of successful hijackings from some 53% of all attacks in August to 31% of all attacks in October. This, however, remains unacceptably high. With the growing commitment of warships and helicopters by nation states these must be co-ordinated by one organisation for their most effective use in order to continue this trend. BIMCO appeals to the UN to address this comprehensively in the next UN Security Council resolution that is imminent. The successful co-ordination of naval units is the only way that the GOA route can be opened up again safely to international trade and avoid unwanted costs to the international community. Indeed, BIMCO strongly believes that such co-operation is the only way to maintain the traditional trading patterns of those nations that rely on maritime trade in the region to conduct business.
   

BIMCO’s Role

BIMCO is an independent international shipping association, with a membership composed of ship owners, managers, brokers, agents and many other stakeholders with vested interests in the shipping industry.  The association acts on behalf of its global membership to promote higher standards and greater harmony in regulatory matters. It is a catalyst for the development and promotion of fair and equitable international shipping policy. BIMCO is accredited as a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), holds observer status with a number of United Nations organs and is in close dialogue with maritime administrations, regulatory institutions and other stakeholders within the EU, the USA and Asia. The association provides one of the most comprehensive sources of practical shipping information and a broad range of advisory and consulting services to its members (source: bimco.org).

The statement comes a day after a negotiator for the pirates said a $3m (£1.95m) ransom had been paid.

A plane was seen apparently dropping money by parachute onto the ship, which is carrying two million barrels of oil.The owners expressed relief that the 25-strong crew, including two Britons, was safe after their two-month ordeal.

“We are very relieved to know that all the crew members are safe and I am glad to say that they are all in good health and high spirits,” said a statement released by Saleh K’aki, president of Vela International Marine.

“This has been a very trying time for them and certainly for their families. We are very happy to report to their families that they will be on their way home soon.”

The UK Foreign Office said it was ready to assist the two Britons on board when they reach land – chief engineer Peter French, from County Durham, and James Grady, from Renfrewshire.

Drowned pirates

The Sirius Star was carrying two million barrels of oil – a quarter of Saudi Arabia’s daily output – when it was seized 450 nautical miles south-east of Kenya in November.

The current location of the tanker is unclear.

Five of the pirates reportedly drowned while making off with their share of the ransom money after their skiff was hit by high seas.

Somali pirates have also released an Iranian-chartered vessel seized off the coast of Yemen in November, Iranian media reported.

The Delight, which was seized on its way to Iran from Germany carrying 36,000 tonnes of wheat, was freed on Friday night, reports said.

A surge in piracy in the busy Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean shipping lanes has sent insurance prices soaring, made some owners choose to go round South Africa instead of through the Suez Canal, and brought an unprecedented deployment of warships to the region (source: bbc.co.uk).

Maritime historians say that’s not particularly surprising. “Pirates have been around for as long as there have been ships on the sea,” says Professor B Arunachalam, academic adviser to Mumbai’s Maritime History Society. Even so, just a few years ago, it seemed the battle against pirates was being won. In 2006, the International Maritime Bureau, which monitors pirate attacks on ships, reported that piracy cases had fallen from 329 in 2004 to just 239. While the good news is that traditional hotspots, such as the Malacca Straits and Indonesia have suffered fewer attacks since 2004, the bad news is that Somalia has emerged as the new locus of piracy.

There are a number of reasons for this. Poverty is rampant in Somalia and it has been without an effective central government since President Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991. Also, it lies close to the strategically important Gulf of Aden, which is used to ship a significant percentage of the world’s oil reserves. In addition, says defence analyst Commodore Uday Bhaskar, piracy in the region is helped by “the diffident and indifferent attitude of most countries”. “Tackling piracy is a complex issue that most countries prefer to avoid. For instance, a ship might be built in one country, fly the flag of another and have a crew of different nationalities. That’s why, when it is hijacked, governments prefer to let the shipping company handle the negotiations. Consequently, we are in the shameful situation that even today, pirates are holding the world to ransom and creating a negative fiscal economy pattern,” he says.

It is ironic that modern technology has actually helped those who ply this ancient trade. Pirates now have advance information about ships, communicate via satellite phones, carry sophisticated weapons and use fast speedboats. However, their modus operandi remains almost similar to their earlier counterparts – that is, operating stealthily and swiftly. Explains Vice Admiral (retd) Mihir Roy of the Society for Indian Ocean Studies, “Somali pirates use large motherships that carry small speedboats. Once they spot the ship they want to target, they stealthily approach it in their small boats and then board it fast. After they have taken over the ship, they steer it into their own waters.”

The Somali pirates’ successes appear to indicate they are getting increasingly audacious. Just last week, they captured the Saudi oil tanker Sirius Star in broad daylight, 450 nautical miles south-east of Kenya. Roy says it illustrates that the pirates “now feel that they can get away with anything”.

Incidentally, the port of Eyl, where most of the hijacked vessels are kept, has emerged as a new boom-town, whose economy is being sustained by the piracy industry. Reports indicate that Eyl has many new restaurants to cater to pirates and feed the crews of hijacked ships. Ancillary professions, such as being the pirates’ negotiator and accountant, are in demand.

With India bolstering its naval presence in the Gulf of Aden to tackle piracy off Somalia’s coast, Bhaskar says the problem needs urgently to be tackled at its roots. “Somalia, like Afghanistan, is a failed state. The conditions on land are so bad that many pirates say that they would be happy to be arrested by Europeans, so that they can live in European jails rather than go back to their country,” he says.

Besides the ongoing naval initiative, there’s much more that needs to be done, adds Bhaskar. “India should take the lead in pioneering a diplomatic effort with other countries to address the problems on land. There is already the example of Malacca, where piracy was quarantined due to regional cooperation between Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Similarly, there is a strong case for India to encourage a regional naval task force and try to solve the issue by building up a multilateral initiative,” he suggests.

Perhaps, if all this is done fast, India might just emerge as the nemesis of the modern day pirates (timesofindia.indiatimes.com).

The attack on the Sirius Star, three times the mass of a US aircraft carrier and capable of carrying 2m barrels of crude oil, is the most audacious in recent times.

A large, Saudi-owned crude oil carrier Sirius Star has been captured by pirates in the Arabian Sea. The tanker was attacked 800 east of Mombasa, Kenya Photograph: Caters News Agency Ltd

It took place 520 miles south-east of Mombasa, Kenya, more than twice as far out to sea as other recent attacks on shipping, the US navy said. The International Chamber of Shipping said it believed the ship was 800 miles east of Mombasa when attacked.Reports earlier this afternoon on Arabiya television suggesting the crew had been freed could not be confirmed. The US Navy said it understood the pirates were holding the tanker “near an anchorage point” of the town of Eyl, Somalia, which has become a haven for pirates.

The Saudi- vessel was heading for the US via the Cape of Good Hope. There are 25 crew on board, including those from Britain, Croatia, the Philippines, Poland and Saudi Arabia.

“We are evaluating the situation,” Lieutenant Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the US Fifth Fleet, said, when asked whether the navy was taking action to rescue the tanker.

He said he had spoken to those on board by telephone today from the headquarters in Bahrain. The vessel was hijacked on Saturday.

“Sirius Star is three times the size of a US aircraft carrier and shows how they are successfully expanding their operations,” Christensen said. He added the operation demonstrated a new level of sophistication as the attackers had to scale the 10-metre high sides of the vessel. Previous attacks have occurred within 200 nautical miles of land.

“We don’t know the condition of the crew on board or the nature of the pirates’ demands. In cases like this what we typically see is a demand for money from the ship owners but we haven’t had that yet,” he said.

A spokesman for the Foreign Office confirmed that two of those on board are British, but could not give any details of their role on the ship. He said: “We are seeking more information on the incident.”

Andrew Linington, from Nautilus UK, the seafarers union, said the British nationals on board were thought to be a master, and a chief engineer.

“This has come as a massive shock. It’s the biggest ship that’s ever been taken, and it’s a long way away from the area, which up until now has been regarded as the dangerous region; where the previous attacks have been,” he said. “Tankers of this size are usually safe from attacks. It’s a worrying escalation.”

Pirates, often based in Somalia, have made shipping routes off east Africa among the most dangerous in the world.

The route around southern Africa is a main thoroughfare for fully laden supertankers from the Gulf, the world’s biggest oil exporting region.

The Sirius Star is owned by a Dubai shipping firm, Vela International Marine Ltd, a subsidiary of Saudi Aramco, the state-owned national oil company of Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest oil exporter, sending around 7m barrels per day (bpd) to global markets.

The very large crude carrier (VLCC) was sailing under a Liberian flag and is carrying an unspecified amount of oil. Built by Daewoo in South Korea, the 318,000-tonne, 330-metre-long vessel made its maiden voyage in March this year.

The ship is the largest vessel to come under attack by pirates in the area, a US Navy spokesman said.

Piracy in the Gulf of Aden, between Yemen and Somalia, has more than doubled in 2008, with assailants using GPS navigational aids and satellite phones to find potential targets, according to a report last month by the international affairs think tank, Chatham House. It warned of the danger a tanker could come under attack.

“As pirates become bolder and use ever more powerful weaponry a tanker could be set on fire, sunk or forced ashore, any of which could result in an environmental catastrophe that would devastate marine and bird life for years to come,” it said.

“The pirates’ aim is to extort ransom payments and to date that has been their main focus. However, the possibility that they could destroy shipping is very real.”

Vela International Marine Limited is the sixth largest VLCC-owner in the world, employing 1,100 people worldwide. It owns and operates a fleet of 24 tankers.

Last week, British commandos killed two suspected pirates who tried to seize a Danish ship in the Gulf of Aden during an operation involving a Royal Navy and a Russian warship (source: guardian.co.uk).