Somali Pirates: Indian Coast Guard plane chases pirates away off Lakshadweep

Indian Coast Guard Dornier

Indian Coast Guard plane chases pirates away off Lakshadweep:

Pirates closing in on a merchant vessel off the Lakshadweep were thwarted by the Indian Coast Guard Friday with its patrol aircraft chasing the sea brigands away through a timely intervention.

The Bahamas-flagged container carrier, MV CMA CGM Berd (E1 note: ?), was sailing west of the Lakshadweep Islands when the Coast Guard's Dornier on a surveillance sortie noticed two skiffs in its vicinity around 10.30 a.m, a Navy official said.

Arrow points to Lakshadweep Islands

Soon, the aircraft descended to pass over the merchant vessel to check on the suspicious activity.

Noticing the Coast Guard aircraft, the pirates abandoned their plans to attack the merchant vessel and quickly sailed away from there, the navy spokesperson said in a press release.

Prantalay, pirate mother ship (NATO photos)

The patrol aircraft crew also sighted the mother-vessel of the pirates identified as merchant ship Prantalay, in the vicinity.

The navy and the Coast Guard rushed their ships to the location to keep a continuous watch on the movements of Prantalay, the spokesperson said.

'Because of the timely arrival of the aircraft, the merchant vessel is now safe and is heading for its next port of call in East Asia,' he added.

Somali Pirate "Navy" on the Move

Pirated vessels at sea 30 Dec 10 (except Golden)

 As noted in my earlier post, the Somali pirates have begun to use up to six pirated vessels as a sort of ad hoc "navy" to transport their strike force (speed boats) to major shipping lanes and to areas less impacted by weather. NATO is offering up some tracking info to warn mariners to be on the watch for these mother ships throughout the Indian Ocean. Now, as Reported by NATO Shipping Centre:

Alert update 29/12/10 1335 UTC

Motivator

Motivator is reported in the area of 15°21N 057°52E

York

Golden Wave

York (00°28N 059°44E) and Golden Wave (NO Position) are assessed to be heading out to the deep Somali Basin, maybe the shipping lanes east of 60°E.

Hannibal II

Hannibal II (11°49N 055°39E) heading towards the coast of Somalia.

Thor Nexus

Thor Nexus, 150NM south of Socotra,

EMS River

EMS River (15°21N 057°52E) coming from the Arabian Sea

Polar (03°50S 051°42E)

Polar

Shiuh

Shiuh Fu No.1 (19°01S 052°41E) from the Madagascar area, maybe heading back to the anchorage off Somalia.

Somali Pirates: Updated Map of Attacks

From an industry friend:

Sort of spread across the Indian Ocean, isn't it? And this is just, roughly, the past month.

Click to enlarge.

Somali pirates convicted of attacking US Navy ship

There be pirates - and they are headed to jail!

BBC report: Somali pirates convicted of attacking US Navy ship:

Five young Somali men face life in prison after being convicted of piracy in the April attack on a US Navy ship.

Prosecutors said the men attacked the USS Nicholas after mistaking it for a merchant ship and were out for as much as $40,000 (£24,800) in ransom money.

But the men's lawyers maintained the five only fired their weapons to attract attention and get help.

The verdict is the first in a piracy case in the US in nearly 200 years. The men face a mandatory life sentence.

The five men were convicted of piracy, attacking to plunder a maritime vessel, and assault with a dangerous weapon.

They were arrested in April, along with six others who were captured a few days later in waters near Djibouti after allegedly shooting at the USS Ashland, an amphibious vessel.

Lawyers for the men said they were fishermen who had been forced by pirates to attack the ship.

Now, you know this going to get appealed because another U.S. District Judge in Norfolk has ruled that without a "robbery" component, the crime is not piracy. See discussion here and the links therein.

More on this decision later.

UPDATE: More from the AP here:

John S. Davis, an assistant U.S. attorney, had argued that three of the men were in a skiff that opened fire on the Nicholas with assault rifles, then fled when sailors returned fire with machine guns.

Davis said all the men later confessed to the attack in a confession to an interpreter aboard the Nicholas. He said they expected to make anywhere from $10,000 to $40,000 from the ransom.
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Other countries have recently held piracy trials, but legal and maritime scholars say one of the last in the U.S. was in 1861 when 13 Southern privateers aboard the schooner Savannah were prosecuted in New York City. The jury deadlocked.

Somali Pirates: Hijack A Tanker

Estimated vicinity of capture

Somali pirates hijack Panama-flagged tanker:

Somali pirates have hijacked a Panama-flagged tanker in the Somali Basin with 24 crew members, European Union anti-piracy force said on Saturday.

EU Naval Force spokesman Peter Klingvall said the Liberian- owned MV Polar was attacked during on Friday night approximately 580 nautical miles (almost 1,100 km) east from Socotra Island.

"The owner confirmed this morning that his vessel was under pirate control," Klingvall said in a statement.

The MV Polar, deadweight 72,825 tons, has a crew of 24, of which one is Romanian, three are Greek, four Montenegrin and 16 Filipino, he said. The Horn of African nation is at the entrance to the Gulf of Aden, which leads to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, one of the world's most important shipping channels.

Ship photo by Dirk from Shipspotting.com and used in accord with that site's terms.

Pirate Activity So Far in 2010

A report on international piracy through September 2010 from the International Maritime Bureau here:

Reported piracy to October 19, 2010

Somali pirates intensified attacks away from their own coast and were responsible for 44% of the 289 piracy incidents on the world’s seas in the first nine months of 2010, according to a report published today by the International Chamber of Commerce International Maritime Bureau (IMB).

Carrying out 35 of the 39 ship hijackings worldwide from January to September 2010, Somali pirates used ocean-going fishing vessels to reach as far as the southern Red Sea, where they hijacked a chemical tanker in July 2010, the first such hijacking recorded in the area. Pirates are heavily armed with automatic weapons and rocket propelled grenades, IMB reported.

The IMB Piracy Reporting Centre’s worldwide figures show that in the past nine months pirates boarded 128 ships and fired at 52. A total of 70 vessels reported thwarting attacks. Pirates used guns in 137 incidents and knives in 66, killing one crew member, injuring 27 and taking 773 hostages.

Globally, the number of vessels hijacked was higher than the 34 recorded in the same period last year, despite a slight fall in the number of piracy incidents, down from 306 in the first nine months of 2009.

IMB said navies from around the world helped prevent numerous attacks off the Horn of Africa, where their presence is vital in protecting merchant shipping against piracy. But despite a fall in the number of attacks in this piracy hotspot, the level of hijackings remained similar to that of last year.

“The actions of the navies in the Gulf of Aden and the Somali basin have to be once again commended”, said Captain Pottengal Mukundan, IMB Director. “Increased intelligence gathering coupled with strategic placement of naval assets has resulted in the targeting of suspected Pirate Action Groups before they become operational.

“However, this is a vast area and the navies cannot realistically cover it. The naval presence does however remain vital to the control of piracy in this area.”
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In the Gulf of Aden attacks were greatly reduced, with only 44 reported this year compared with 100 for the same period of 2009. The monsoon weather that had been deterring piracy further out to sea ended in mid-September, opening the way for renewed attacks, warned IMB.

A new area of increased piracy is the South China Sea, which suffered 30 piracy attempts in the last nine months, resulting in 21 successful boardings. This is triple the number of incidents reported in the same period last year. Captain Mukundan said: “The pirates in this area use almost identical methods of attack, suggesting that a small number of groups is responsible. The fact that vulnerable vessels are boarded by pirates whilst steaming is a matter of concern.”

Other parts of the world to note a rise in piracy include Chittagong, Bangladesh, where IMB warned ships’ Masters to be particularly vigilant. Here an increasing number of thieves boarded vessels at anchor or approaching anchorage. Around Indonesia, 26 incidents were recorded, up from seven in 2009. In Nigeria 11 piracy incidents were reported, although real figures may be much higher in this particularly violent area.

Note that the IMB uses a broad standard of what constitutes "piracy" that includes in port and at anchorage thefts from ships located in the territorial waters of a state. This varies from the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea definition concerning "high seas" piracy.