Friday, June 3, 2011
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Scourge of the High Seas, 21st Century Style - World Trade
by Drew Feldman
Posted: June 2, 2011
Modern piracy is a growth industry. The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) reported in April that during the first three months of 2011, pirates attacked 142 vessels in international waters, seizing 18 vessels, three of them tankers with more than 100,000 deadweight tons—an all-time high number of pirate attacks for any three-month period. During all of 2010, pirates attacked 445 vessels, capturing 53 of them. Some highly publicized incidents of piracy in recent years have spurred governments and nongovernmental maritime organizations to coordinate their efforts to suppress piracy, with some limited successes in some places.
Yet, the problem grows. Somalia has become infamous in recent decades as a nation-sized haven for pirates, and for good reason. Some 70 percent of total pirate attacks worldwide during the first quarter of 2011 occurred off the coast of Somalia, either in the Gulf of Aden to the north of the country or in the Indian Ocean to the southeast, sometimes hundreds of kilometers off shore. But, Somalia isn’t the only hotbed of modern piracy. Elsewhere during the same quarter, nine attacks occurred off Malaysia and five happened near the coast of Nigeria. A scattering of other places have seen pirate attacks on commercial vessels in recent years as well, such as in the vast Indonesian archipelago.
Chatham House, a London-based think tank, estimates that piracy costs the global economy between $7 billion and $12 billion annually, and further that Somali pirates are responsible for perhaps as much as 95 percent of that total. Those are wide-ranging estimates, which only illustrates how murky things can get when calculating the costs of a widespread criminal activity. According to a separate study released in April by the economic consultancy Geopolicity, the global cost of piracy could be as much as $15 billion by 2015.
Whatever the actual totals, it’s clear that the costs of piracy are high, and borne largely but not exclusively by shippers, who find themselves paying for security equipment and training, insurance premiums to mitigate the risk, and, in some cases, ransoms and other costs associated with a ship being held hostage. But the largest expenditure for the shipping industry—an estimated $2.4 to $3 billion, according to a report by One Earth Future, a private foundation—arises from re-routing ships to avoid high-risk areas.
Complicating matters is a disturbing recent trend of greater violence by pirates. The IMB states that during the first quarter of 2011, pirates murdered seven crew members and injured 34. Five years ago, during the first quarter of 2006, just two injuries and no murders were reported.
The business of piracy
Whatever romantic notions we have about the pirates of previous centuries, there shouldn’t be any doubt that modern piracy is a stone-cold business. It’s an unlawful business and one detrimental to shipping interests and international commerce, but nevertheless an operation whose guiding purpose is commercial in nature. That makes Somali and other pirates largely the concern of workaday ships of commerce that ply danger zones, though non-commercial vessels are at risk as well.
Wherever piracy occurs, it’s the result of a confluence of factors (and it’s an age-old problem; early in his life, no less a personage than Julius Caesar was captured by pirates). The recipe for piracy is this: a seafaring but poor people who live near a prosperous trade route, combined with little or no government control of their territory. Somalia is a text book example. The country has not had a functioning government for about 20 years, and is essentially a lawless patchwork of quarreling warlords, tribal entities and terrorist groups lording over a population that gets by on about $500 a year per person.
Moreover, the Somalis have a long history of seafaring, especially as fishermen. As such, they have jealously guarded their fishing grounds for years, using their vessels to drive away foreign trawlers. As the government of Somalia melted into anarchy, this “coast guard” discovered new opportunities as pirates, and as they grew experienced, they started venturing further out and seizing larger vessels such as bulk cargo containers and oil tankers. Somali pirates are now known to strike in an area of roughly 2.5 million square nautical miles off Somalia’s coastline, which is an increase of about one million nautical miles from only two years ago, according to Geopolicity.
The usual modus operandi for pirates, Somalis especially but others as well, is to attack early in the morning, using small, speedy skiffs to approach a target vessel. Often the skiffs themselves are launched from “motherships” that can range hundreds, or even thousands, of kilometers off shore. Once next to their prey, the pirates use grappling hooks to attach ladders to the side of the vessel, and then climb aboard, typically armed with AK-47s. Speed is of the essence during a pirate attack. Their goal is to waylay the crew and capture the ship’s bridge as quickly as possible.
Once they capture a ship, the pirates are interested in one thing: ransom. The cargo itself is largely irrelevant. The only important thing about the cargo is that there’s an owner somewhere that wants it, and the ship, back and the crew released. The pirates will be happy to do that for a large fee.
Somali pirates take their captured vessels to the coast of Somalia and keep them there, but sometimes disperse their hostages. Negotiations then begin, typically through an intermediary organization that specializes in dealing with pirates (by long distance, of course), and often the process takes several months. Eventually, a ransom that averages in the range of $ 4 million to $5 million is dropped from a small airplane for the pirates to pick up and divide among themselves, after which the ship and hostages are released. For an ordinary Somali, the economic incentive to be a pirate is clear. A successful raid might net him thousands of dollars, a considerable fortune in Somalia. The pirate higher-ups and their allies, including land-based warlords who protect the pirates’ lair, probably stand to make a good deal more.
Protection against pirates
Statistically speaking, the risk of being taken by pirates while transiting near Somalia is actually fairly small and it’s even lower elsewhere in the world. About 21,000 vessels transit the Gulf of Aden each year, and another 10,000 ply the Indian Ocean within striking distance of Somalia. Since only 49 ships were seized by Somali pirates in 2010, only a fraction of the vessels sailing in that part of the world end up in their clutches; a minuscule number, unless it happens to be your ship. In fact, among all of the risks involved in shipping cargo from point A to point B, piracy may represent the most significant risk for ships operating in the parts of the world where pirates operate.
How can ship owners and charterers take steps to protect their vessels, crew and cargos from modern day seafaring predators? Even before sending a ship into such risky waters, adequate insurance is necessary. Some hull and war risk insurance policies cover aspects of piracy, but there may be gaps in protection. More recently an insurance product known as a kidnap and ransom (K&R) policy has been tailored to more specifically address the problem of piracy. Depending on the policy, K&R insurance might not only pay the ransom itself, but also the costs of negotiation and delivering it, along with such expenses as loss of hire (business revenue), travel costs, medical expenses, and should the worst happen, death benefits for crewmen.
Well worth consulting is Best Management Practices to Deter Piracy off the Coast of Somalia and in the Arabian Sea, (BMP3) which details how to protect vessels against pirates. The publication is specific to the Somali pirate threat, and not all of the measures it suggests apply to every type of ship, but it’s nevertheless a good guide to help mitigate the risk of piracy.
BMP3 strongly recommends that ships navigate within the Internationally Recommended Transit Corridor (IRTC) through the Gulf of Aden, where naval forces are concentrated. Also, if possible, ships should participate in a “group transit” plan, which groups vessels together by speed for maximum protection as they transit through the IRTC. If it isn’t possible to transit through the IRTC—or even if it is, considering that the transit corridor isn’t an absolute guarantee against piracy—it behooves ships to take their own measures to protect themselves against pirates. Simply moving at a speed over 18 knots can often prevent pirates from boarding a ship, for example.
Since pirates typically use grappling hooks and ladders to board vessels underway, physical barriers can be used to thwart them, such as well-placed razor wire. Also, the use of automated water (or foam) guns has been found to be useful for knocking pirates who are trying to board a vessel into the drink. When physical barriers fail, some ships have employed a safe haven—“citadel” is the term for a long-term safe haven—to which the crew can retreat to hold off the pirates until help arrives. Ideally, such a space would have self-contained air-conditioning, emergency rations, water supply, and other useful features. wt
Drew Feldman is a vice president and worldwide ocean marine manager for the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies. He can be reached at dfeldman@chubb.com.
Posted: June 2, 2011
Modern piracy is a growth industry. The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) reported in April that during the first three months of 2011, pirates attacked 142 vessels in international waters, seizing 18 vessels, three of them tankers with more than 100,000 deadweight tons—an all-time high number of pirate attacks for any three-month period. During all of 2010, pirates attacked 445 vessels, capturing 53 of them. Some highly publicized incidents of piracy in recent years have spurred governments and nongovernmental maritime organizations to coordinate their efforts to suppress piracy, with some limited successes in some places.
Yet, the problem grows. Somalia has become infamous in recent decades as a nation-sized haven for pirates, and for good reason. Some 70 percent of total pirate attacks worldwide during the first quarter of 2011 occurred off the coast of Somalia, either in the Gulf of Aden to the north of the country or in the Indian Ocean to the southeast, sometimes hundreds of kilometers off shore. But, Somalia isn’t the only hotbed of modern piracy. Elsewhere during the same quarter, nine attacks occurred off Malaysia and five happened near the coast of Nigeria. A scattering of other places have seen pirate attacks on commercial vessels in recent years as well, such as in the vast Indonesian archipelago.
Chatham House, a London-based think tank, estimates that piracy costs the global economy between $7 billion and $12 billion annually, and further that Somali pirates are responsible for perhaps as much as 95 percent of that total. Those are wide-ranging estimates, which only illustrates how murky things can get when calculating the costs of a widespread criminal activity. According to a separate study released in April by the economic consultancy Geopolicity, the global cost of piracy could be as much as $15 billion by 2015.
Whatever the actual totals, it’s clear that the costs of piracy are high, and borne largely but not exclusively by shippers, who find themselves paying for security equipment and training, insurance premiums to mitigate the risk, and, in some cases, ransoms and other costs associated with a ship being held hostage. But the largest expenditure for the shipping industry—an estimated $2.4 to $3 billion, according to a report by One Earth Future, a private foundation—arises from re-routing ships to avoid high-risk areas.
Complicating matters is a disturbing recent trend of greater violence by pirates. The IMB states that during the first quarter of 2011, pirates murdered seven crew members and injured 34. Five years ago, during the first quarter of 2006, just two injuries and no murders were reported.
The business of piracy
Whatever romantic notions we have about the pirates of previous centuries, there shouldn’t be any doubt that modern piracy is a stone-cold business. It’s an unlawful business and one detrimental to shipping interests and international commerce, but nevertheless an operation whose guiding purpose is commercial in nature. That makes Somali and other pirates largely the concern of workaday ships of commerce that ply danger zones, though non-commercial vessels are at risk as well.
Wherever piracy occurs, it’s the result of a confluence of factors (and it’s an age-old problem; early in his life, no less a personage than Julius Caesar was captured by pirates). The recipe for piracy is this: a seafaring but poor people who live near a prosperous trade route, combined with little or no government control of their territory. Somalia is a text book example. The country has not had a functioning government for about 20 years, and is essentially a lawless patchwork of quarreling warlords, tribal entities and terrorist groups lording over a population that gets by on about $500 a year per person.
Moreover, the Somalis have a long history of seafaring, especially as fishermen. As such, they have jealously guarded their fishing grounds for years, using their vessels to drive away foreign trawlers. As the government of Somalia melted into anarchy, this “coast guard” discovered new opportunities as pirates, and as they grew experienced, they started venturing further out and seizing larger vessels such as bulk cargo containers and oil tankers. Somali pirates are now known to strike in an area of roughly 2.5 million square nautical miles off Somalia’s coastline, which is an increase of about one million nautical miles from only two years ago, according to Geopolicity.
The usual modus operandi for pirates, Somalis especially but others as well, is to attack early in the morning, using small, speedy skiffs to approach a target vessel. Often the skiffs themselves are launched from “motherships” that can range hundreds, or even thousands, of kilometers off shore. Once next to their prey, the pirates use grappling hooks to attach ladders to the side of the vessel, and then climb aboard, typically armed with AK-47s. Speed is of the essence during a pirate attack. Their goal is to waylay the crew and capture the ship’s bridge as quickly as possible.
Once they capture a ship, the pirates are interested in one thing: ransom. The cargo itself is largely irrelevant. The only important thing about the cargo is that there’s an owner somewhere that wants it, and the ship, back and the crew released. The pirates will be happy to do that for a large fee.
Somali pirates take their captured vessels to the coast of Somalia and keep them there, but sometimes disperse their hostages. Negotiations then begin, typically through an intermediary organization that specializes in dealing with pirates (by long distance, of course), and often the process takes several months. Eventually, a ransom that averages in the range of $ 4 million to $5 million is dropped from a small airplane for the pirates to pick up and divide among themselves, after which the ship and hostages are released. For an ordinary Somali, the economic incentive to be a pirate is clear. A successful raid might net him thousands of dollars, a considerable fortune in Somalia. The pirate higher-ups and their allies, including land-based warlords who protect the pirates’ lair, probably stand to make a good deal more.
Protection against pirates
Statistically speaking, the risk of being taken by pirates while transiting near Somalia is actually fairly small and it’s even lower elsewhere in the world. About 21,000 vessels transit the Gulf of Aden each year, and another 10,000 ply the Indian Ocean within striking distance of Somalia. Since only 49 ships were seized by Somali pirates in 2010, only a fraction of the vessels sailing in that part of the world end up in their clutches; a minuscule number, unless it happens to be your ship. In fact, among all of the risks involved in shipping cargo from point A to point B, piracy may represent the most significant risk for ships operating in the parts of the world where pirates operate.
How can ship owners and charterers take steps to protect their vessels, crew and cargos from modern day seafaring predators? Even before sending a ship into such risky waters, adequate insurance is necessary. Some hull and war risk insurance policies cover aspects of piracy, but there may be gaps in protection. More recently an insurance product known as a kidnap and ransom (K&R) policy has been tailored to more specifically address the problem of piracy. Depending on the policy, K&R insurance might not only pay the ransom itself, but also the costs of negotiation and delivering it, along with such expenses as loss of hire (business revenue), travel costs, medical expenses, and should the worst happen, death benefits for crewmen.
Well worth consulting is Best Management Practices to Deter Piracy off the Coast of Somalia and in the Arabian Sea, (BMP3) which details how to protect vessels against pirates. The publication is specific to the Somali pirate threat, and not all of the measures it suggests apply to every type of ship, but it’s nevertheless a good guide to help mitigate the risk of piracy.
BMP3 strongly recommends that ships navigate within the Internationally Recommended Transit Corridor (IRTC) through the Gulf of Aden, where naval forces are concentrated. Also, if possible, ships should participate in a “group transit” plan, which groups vessels together by speed for maximum protection as they transit through the IRTC. If it isn’t possible to transit through the IRTC—or even if it is, considering that the transit corridor isn’t an absolute guarantee against piracy—it behooves ships to take their own measures to protect themselves against pirates. Simply moving at a speed over 18 knots can often prevent pirates from boarding a ship, for example.
Since pirates typically use grappling hooks and ladders to board vessels underway, physical barriers can be used to thwart them, such as well-placed razor wire. Also, the use of automated water (or foam) guns has been found to be useful for knocking pirates who are trying to board a vessel into the drink. When physical barriers fail, some ships have employed a safe haven—“citadel” is the term for a long-term safe haven—to which the crew can retreat to hold off the pirates until help arrives. Ideally, such a space would have self-contained air-conditioning, emergency rations, water supply, and other useful features. wt
Drew Feldman is a vice president and worldwide ocean marine manager for the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies. He can be reached at dfeldman@chubb.com.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Shipowners Turn to AK-47s to Halt $2.4 Billion of Piracy Off Africa, India
By Michelle Wiese Bockmann - May 17, 2011
Shipping companies are turning to guards armed with AK-47 assault rifles to protect vessels from pirates, a trade group for security professionals said, after record numbers of attacks last year added $2.4 billion to costs.
About 20 percent of ships in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden will use armed guards within the next 18 months, up from 12 percent, Peter Cook, spokesman for the Security Association for the Maritime Industry, said after a presentation yesterday in London. The group represents a fifth of private security firms offering services to shipping companies in the region, he said.
Average ransom payments jumped to $5.4 million last year, from $150,000 in 2005, Louisville, Colorado-based One Earth Future Foundation estimated in January. Attacks off Somalia were also at an all-time high, with 49 vessels and 1,016 crew members hijacked, according to the International Maritime Bureau.
“There is a wish by some shipowners to have armed guards on board and you can’t dispute the fact they are successful,” said Andrew Bardot, secretary and executive officer of the International Group of P&I Clubs, which insures 90 percent of the world fleet against liability claims. There have been no successful hijackings on ships with armed guards, he said.
Most companies have three to five guards on their payroll and hire extra staff on a freelance basis, Cook said, adding that shipowners pay about $100 million a year for the services. There are between 50 and 80 four-person teams of guards on vessels at any one time, mostly toting AK-47s, he added.
Vetting Procedures
There have been 145 attacks and 22 ships hijacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean so far this year, according to the International Maritime Organization, the shipping division of the United Nations. Somali pirates added at least $2.4 billion to transportation costs in 2010 as ships were diverted to avoid attacks off east Africa, said One Earth, a non-profit group.
The IMO, which had advised shipowners to avoid using armed guards, will probably approve vetting procedures for security operators this week, paving the way for their increased use, Cook said. The organization will discuss guidelines for hiring private armed guards this week, it said by e-mail on May 9.
“The maritime security industry wants to be regulated,” said Cook, adding that his newly created trade group for companies seeking to protect shipping will allow owners to distinguish “good maritime companies” from “entrepreneurs.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Michelle Wiesebockmann in London at mwiesebockma@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alaric Nightingale at anightingal1@bloomberg.net
®2011 BLOOMBERG L.P. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Shipping companies are turning to guards armed with AK-47 assault rifles to protect vessels from pirates, a trade group for security professionals said, after record numbers of attacks last year added $2.4 billion to costs.
About 20 percent of ships in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden will use armed guards within the next 18 months, up from 12 percent, Peter Cook, spokesman for the Security Association for the Maritime Industry, said after a presentation yesterday in London. The group represents a fifth of private security firms offering services to shipping companies in the region, he said.
Average ransom payments jumped to $5.4 million last year, from $150,000 in 2005, Louisville, Colorado-based One Earth Future Foundation estimated in January. Attacks off Somalia were also at an all-time high, with 49 vessels and 1,016 crew members hijacked, according to the International Maritime Bureau.
“There is a wish by some shipowners to have armed guards on board and you can’t dispute the fact they are successful,” said Andrew Bardot, secretary and executive officer of the International Group of P&I Clubs, which insures 90 percent of the world fleet against liability claims. There have been no successful hijackings on ships with armed guards, he said.
Most companies have three to five guards on their payroll and hire extra staff on a freelance basis, Cook said, adding that shipowners pay about $100 million a year for the services. There are between 50 and 80 four-person teams of guards on vessels at any one time, mostly toting AK-47s, he added.
Vetting Procedures
There have been 145 attacks and 22 ships hijacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean so far this year, according to the International Maritime Organization, the shipping division of the United Nations. Somali pirates added at least $2.4 billion to transportation costs in 2010 as ships were diverted to avoid attacks off east Africa, said One Earth, a non-profit group.
The IMO, which had advised shipowners to avoid using armed guards, will probably approve vetting procedures for security operators this week, paving the way for their increased use, Cook said. The organization will discuss guidelines for hiring private armed guards this week, it said by e-mail on May 9.
“The maritime security industry wants to be regulated,” said Cook, adding that his newly created trade group for companies seeking to protect shipping will allow owners to distinguish “good maritime companies” from “entrepreneurs.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Michelle Wiesebockmann in London at mwiesebockma@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alaric Nightingale at anightingal1@bloomberg.net
®2011 BLOOMBERG L.P. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Top 100 Comic Book Heroes - IGN
Top 100 Comic Book Heroes - IGN: "IGN picks the top 100 heroes from comic books. Find out if your favorites made it!"
Fright Night make Vampires scary again
The 1985 horror/comedy get a face lift with Anton Yelchin and Colin Farrell.
Thursday, May 12, 2011
US Navy Crowdsourcing Pirates Plans
Gaming News
US Navy crowdsources pirate-catching plans using online game
Aims for safety on the high seas
By Kate Solomon
The US Navy is hoping to find new ways of stopping Somalian pirates by crowdsourcing ideas from a multiplayer online game.
It seems that the pirate-repelling laser isn't exactly doing the trick, and more ideas are needed to foil the scourges of the seven seas with the game intended to "encourage out of the box thinking about contemporary pirate issues."
The catchily-named Massive Multiplayer Online WarGame Leveraging the Internet (MMOWGLI) will see players posing as naval officers or commercial ship crews, and has no connection with The Jungle Book.
Players can also take on the role of the pirates themselves, although it's not clear exactly what that will achieve other than fulfilling childhood daydreams and that kind of thing.
The idea behind the Warcraft-alike game is to come up with new ways to tackle the pirates so any strategies that work well in the game may be tested in real life.
There are three scenarios to play out in MMOWGLI: protecting sea lanes, sea attacks and hostage rescue. We already have Peter-Pan-inspired ideas for all three.
Unfortunately, it's not a free-for-all; only around 1,000 military personnel and some specially chosen civilians will be allowed to play the online game, so it's back to World of Warcraft with you.
Update: Looks like there's another version of MMOWGLI set to go live in which you - yes, you! - can suggest pirate-tackling ideas in a brief, character limited text box, Twitter-style. Other users can then vote on or amend your idea, leaving the Navy with onehumongousflow chart chock full of pirate-busting game plans.
Register on the MMOWGLI website now if you want to get involved.
From ONR via Kotaku
Tags: Pirates, US Navy, World of Warcraft, MMOWGLI, gaming
Read more: http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/us-navy-crowdsources-pirate-catching-plans-using-online-game-954513#ixzz1M9gGnc5a
US Navy crowdsources pirate-catching plans using online game
Aims for safety on the high seas
By Kate Solomon
The US Navy is hoping to find new ways of stopping Somalian pirates by crowdsourcing ideas from a multiplayer online game.
It seems that the pirate-repelling laser isn't exactly doing the trick, and more ideas are needed to foil the scourges of the seven seas with the game intended to "encourage out of the box thinking about contemporary pirate issues."
The catchily-named Massive Multiplayer Online WarGame Leveraging the Internet (MMOWGLI) will see players posing as naval officers or commercial ship crews, and has no connection with The Jungle Book.
Players can also take on the role of the pirates themselves, although it's not clear exactly what that will achieve other than fulfilling childhood daydreams and that kind of thing.
The idea behind the Warcraft-alike game is to come up with new ways to tackle the pirates so any strategies that work well in the game may be tested in real life.
There are three scenarios to play out in MMOWGLI: protecting sea lanes, sea attacks and hostage rescue. We already have Peter-Pan-inspired ideas for all three.
Unfortunately, it's not a free-for-all; only around 1,000 military personnel and some specially chosen civilians will be allowed to play the online game, so it's back to World of Warcraft with you.
Update: Looks like there's another version of MMOWGLI set to go live in which you - yes, you! - can suggest pirate-tackling ideas in a brief, character limited text box, Twitter-style. Other users can then vote on or amend your idea, leaving the Navy with onehumongousflow chart chock full of pirate-busting game plans.
Register on the MMOWGLI website now if you want to get involved.
From ONR via Kotaku
Tags: Pirates, US Navy, World of Warcraft, MMOWGLI, gaming
Read more: http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/us-navy-crowdsources-pirate-catching-plans-using-online-game-954513#ixzz1M9gGnc5a
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)