Danube River Pirates: Arrests in Serbia

Reported at Piracy in Europe: Danube River Pirates Arrested in Serbia:

The issue of piracy has made global headlines in recent years with events off the Somali coast, but instances of piracy are also occurring along the waterways of mainland Europe, according to a report in Croatian daily, Jutarnji List, on October 12, 2011.

According to the paper, transportation company Dunavski Lloyd has suffered three attacks this year alone on the internationally vital transport route of the Danube River, which runs from Rotterdam to the Black Sea, and is an important trade route for many European businesses.
Shipping Equipment Stolen

In the last attack, on the company' ship Sloga, approximately 60,000 euros worth of equipment was stolen from the vessel in the Serbian port of Smederevo, a theft which delayed Sloga's onward journey to the Black Sea, due to lack of equipment. The theft left the ship without key navigation equipment and the ability to raise the anchor, among other things . The paper notes that the pirates are not targeting crews, merely equipment
***
In order to combat the piracy, the owner of Dunavski Lloyd, Davor Ivancan, appealed to the Croatian embassy in Belgrade for assistance. As a result of the embassy's efforts, Serbian police looked into the three cases, and have made four arrests, according to a report in the Croatian Times on October 15, 2011.

Some may remember tales of a different breed of river pirates:

Worldwide Energy: Turkmenistan has a great big gas field - #2 in the world

The Oil & Gas Journal reports another one of those nasty fossil fuel finds that drives the gloom and doom "We're running out of energy" crowd insane, in GCA: Turkmenistan's Iolotan gas field is world's second-largest :

Gaffney, Cline & Associates (GCA) said Turkmenistan’s South Iolotan natural gas field is the world’s second-largest, with an estimated 21.2 trillion cu m (tcm) of gas reserves. Supergiant Iolotan field was discovered in the country’s Amu Daria basin in late-2006 (OGJ Online, Nov. 22, 2006).

In a recent presentation, Jim Gillett, GCA business development manager, said South Iolotan’s latest reserves estimate make it second only to giant South Pars gas field, shared by Iran and Qatar.

“Turkmenistan’s gas reserves are more than enough for any potential demand over the foreseeable future, whether it be from China, Russia, Iran, or Europe,” Gillett said.

However, Gillet said estimates of the central Asian nation’s reserves could increase even more, noting that in addition to South Iolotan, the country’s Yashlar field has substantial gas, too.

For the geographically challenged, the map above will help you locate Turkmenistan.

Expect big pipeline investments from the Chinese. Pipeline rights through a couple of other 'Stans should not cost all that much.

And they probably won't have idiot "greens" whining about a way to get fuel to flow into China.

Somali Pirates: Suspicious Activity Near Pakistan

Pirates lurk along commercial shipping lanes

NATO Shipping Center alerts for 14 Oct 11 NSC | All Alerts:

NSC4: Warning- Suspicious Activity 14/10/2011 17:45 2429N 06347E Suspicious Activity
At 1743Z a merchant vessel was approached by 4 skiffs, at approximately 2nm. The skiffs ceased the approach at 1835Z

No weapons were seen.
This situation is in the northern Arabian Sea, near NSC 3: Suspicious Activity.

A broader view. Pirate motherships allow long range operations by the pirates

Masters are encouraged to exercise extreme caution when proceeding through this area.

NSC 3: WARNING - Suspicious Activity 14/10/2011 15:40 2142N 06401E Suspicious Activity
At 1542Z a merchant vessel was approached by 2-3 skiffs in position 2142N 06401E.

These skiffs closed the vessel and gotten within 0.5nm, and is following the vessel astern.

Gulf of Guinea Pirates: Ghana Buys Chinese Counter-Pirate Vessels

Ghana Orders Two 46 m Patrol Vessels from China’s Poly Technologies Incorporated:

Ghana has ordered two 46 metre patrol vessels from China’s Poly Technologies Incorporated as part of a larger drive to modernise its navy. The vessels will be used to combat piracy and increase maritime security off Ghana’s coast once they are delivered before yearend.

According to Ghana’s defence minister Lieutenant General Joseph Henry Smith, the vessels form part of the drive to modernise Ghana’s navy as it is not able to defend the country’s exclusive economic zone.
***
“We have constantly been reviewing our measures to safeguard our waters, most importantly to protect our oil installations,” Smith told Reuters last month. “We are aware of the increasing piracy attacks in our neighbourhood and we are very much prepared to face any such attacks.”

So, unlike the failed state of Somalia, Ghana takes steps to protect its waters including counter-piracy and fisheries protection.

Good for Ghana.

Gulf of Guinea Pirates: Tanker Released by Pirates

Early report that the crew of the tanker hijacked 90 or so miles off Nigeria has been released by the pirates here

The 20 crew of the Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker Cape Bird, hijacked by pirates off the Nigerian coast, have been freed after a week-long ordeal, the Russian sailors union said on Friday.

"The crew of the Cape Bird have been freed" the Seafarers Union of Russia said in a statement on its website. "The sailors are healthy and there are no injuries."
***
"The entire crew were freed this morning," Sergei Panyushkin, the head of the Columbia shipping recruitment firm that hired the sailors, told the Interfax and RIA Novosti news agencies.

He said information about how they were freed would only be divulged once the ship had returned to port. The sailors were employed by Hamburg-based German company Columbia Ship Management GmbH.

The Ultimate "Tax Fairness" Plan

New IRS "Fairness Tax" Enforcer

After watching more of the "occupiers of Wall Street," I decided it was time to post and revise a comment reply I made to some comments made to my post He hates these cans. Imagine a day when you get this letter from the IRS:

From IRS "Fairness Division" Washington, D.C.
To: John Doe, Fair American
Subj: Income Tax Fairness

1. It has come to our attention that you are interested in enabling some of the poor and low-income people in this country to not be disproportionately burdened by taxes, citing "payroll tax" as an indicator of unfairness.

Did pirates nab missing scientists around Papua New Guinea?

Odd little report "Missing scientists may be in hands of pirates":

Police say five scientists with Papua New Guinea's Institute of Medical Research, who went missing in August this year may have been kidnapped by pirates.

They were on a research on malaria related diseases in Kimbe in PNG's West New Britain province when they were reported missing.

Provincial Police Commander, Anthon Billy says they may have been kidnapped by pirates.

He says a member of a suspected piracy gang has been arrested and questioned over the five missing scientists.

More here:

The scientists have been missing for more than two months, but police say a tip-off from local villagers has lead them to believe that the group were the victims of piracy.

***

They say an informant claims to have seen the two women from the research team alive, and that they are bing held hostage on the tiny and densely-forested

Mulgani Island.

***

The body of the boat's skipper was believed to have washed up on Manus Island last month.

Mr Billie [New Guinea Islands regional commander] said he believed the male scientists had been killed in the raid, with a police informant saying the skipper was shot in the moments after the pirates boarded the boat.

Sounds like a TV "movie of the week" plot by a hack screenwriter.

Somali Pirates: Armed Guards Worried Over

That's not an AK-47 that pirate has

For people who have been living under rocks someplace, The Economist offers up Piracy: Prepare to repel boarders dealing with the use of armed guards on ships plying pirate infested waters:

Until February the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), which represents the world’s merchant shipowners, opposed the use of armed guards—even as some members were discreetly hiring them. Since the chamber changed its line, the number of owners tooling up has accelerated. Now, says Simon Bennett, its spokesman, perhaps 20% of all ships passing through the risky parts of the Indian Ocean have armed guards aboard—typically retired marines or the like.

In recruiting armed security men, some shipowners have defied the laws of the countries where their vessels are registered. But governments, unable to provide the naval cover the shipowners want, are one by one legalising the practice. Spain, one of the earliest to let its fishing-boats carry armed guards, said on September 27th that they would now be allowed to use machineguns and other heavy weapons against the pirates’ AK-47s.
***
The UN’s International Maritime Organisation (IMO), while still not endorsing the practice, last month asked Somalia’s neighbours to let armed merchant ships call at their ports. The ICS says it understands Egypt is to lift its ban on armed merchant ships’ passage through the Suez canal. But the Indian government is still said to disapprove of armed merchant ships calling at its ports: their guards either have to go elsewhere or dump their weapons overboard.

An official inquiry in the Netherlands last month recommended that the government itself do the hiring of armed guards, enlisting them as temporary members of the armed forces. This is one potential way to ease worries about the spread of what would in effect be private navies on the high seas—something not seen since government-sponsored “privateers” were banned in the 19th century.
***
Shipowners’ insurers are worried that ill-trained guards without insurance of their own might shoot someone and land them with huge claims. . . .
***
There do not yet seem to have been any claims, or lawsuits, over the use of armed ship guards, says Tom Heinan of International Registries (which runs the Marshall Islands’ shipping register). But shipowners using them could face legal action in various places: their own country, the flag state of their ship, the home countries of injured crewmen, and so on. All the more reason to ensure that the guards are competent and well-insured.

Meanwhile, the UK government seems to have decided armed guards aren't all that bad, as reported here:

As reported in Lloyd’s List, any formal opposition to the use of private armed guards on board UK flagged vessels will now be dropped.

UK Foreign Office minister Sir Henry Bellingham confirmed a reversal on the previous strong discouragement of armed vessel protection.

The Dutch are going to provide an armed force for ship riding, as set out here, as will Italy.

Welcome to 19th century, sorta. Sometimes you just have to shoot back.

It's a U.S. Navy Birthday

Navy Birthday:

The United States Navy traces its origins to the Continental Navy, which the Continental Congress established on 13 October 1775, by authorizing the procurement, fitting out, manning, and dispatch of two armed vessels to cruise in search of munitions ships supplying the British Army in America. The legislation also established a Naval Committee to supervise the work. All together, the Continental Navy numbered some fifty ships over the course of the war, with approximately twenty warships active at its maximum strength.

What makes a great Navy?

It's always about the people who serve.



Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Travis K. Mendoza

Let me recommend this - Midrats Episode 92 "Afghanistan - to what end at what price?"

Let me suggest, for those who missed it, listening to this discussion of the U.S. role in Afghanistan after 10 years of war - you can find it at Episode 92 Afghanistan - to what end at what price? 10/09 by Midrats | Blog Talk Radio or on the Midrats iTunes page. Here's the blurb Sal wrote to advertise the show:

Over a decade in to the war in Afghanistan and over three years in to the surge of forces - have we reached the point of diminishing returns? Is the present AFG government stable enough to accept a transition? Is the present withdrawl timetable right, wrong, or just right?

Join co-hosts "Sal" from the blog "CDR Salamander" and "EagleOne" from "EagleSpeak" to discuss the past, present, and future of the AFG campaign for the full hour will their guest Michael Barrett, co-founder of Diligent Innovations, a Washington consulting firm, former Navy Intelligence Officer and director of strategy for the Homeland Security Council under President George W. Bush.

The opinion piece we discuss during the show, "Afghan Half Measures Are Costing Full Lives," can be found at Defense News here.

You may not agree with what you read or hear, but it is worth having a conversation about.

Listen to internet radio with Midrats on Blog Talk Radio

Somali Pirates: Insurance Executive Suggests, "Shoot the pirates"

TradeWinds.com reports on a speech given by an insurance executive that contains some blunt advice, at Shipping news - www.tradewindsnews.com:

Ready? Aim?  . . .

Aon K&R chief electrifies India Shipping Summit piracy session with ‘Don’t fire above their heads, put a bullet in their body’ call.

I'll bet there were a lot of panties in a twist after that advice was proffered at the India Shipping Summit.

Of course, it's all in the context. He also suggests armed guards on ships (well, of course, otherwise, how could pirate fire be returned!). He did couch the advice with a "if necessary," which will probably go unreported and unexamined, but which is really the key qualifier in his advice. Sort of when you are under pirate attack and "when all else fails," don't you know.

There is a video at the TradeWinds site.

New, Bigger Japanese Navy Helicopter Carrier

Comparison of current JN "DDH" (foreground) with new design in background

Reported at Maritime Propulsion, "New Helicopter Carrier for Japanese Navy":

Details of the propulsion system for the new Helicopter Carrier of the Japanese Navy / Maritime Self-Defence Force (JMSDF) have been announced. To be built by IHI of Tokyo, the LOA 814 ft (248 m) and beam of 124 ft (38 m) vessel will have a fully loaded displacement of around 27,500 tons. The official Japanese 22DDH designation of the ship is of a “destroyer” but in reality it is a helicopter carrier. The reason for the diplomatic designation lies in the post World War 2 constitution which prohibits Japan to own aircraft carriers.
***
The propulsion system comprises four GE LM2500 gas turbines of 33,600 hp (25 MW) each giving a total power of around 135,000 hp (100 MW) in a COGAG arrangement giving a speed of 30 kt. The ships will also be using GE’s smaller turbine, the LM500 with an output of approximately 6,000 hp (4.5MW) in a turbo-electric configuration for on board power generation.

More info from here:

Japanese accounts suggest that one of the reasons for the drastic increase in size of the 22DDH design is a planned shift to the V-22 Osprey as the primary air group element for these ships. It is not clear whether these would be replacements for or supplemental to the SH-60Ks that equip the Hyuga class. These accounts also make it clear that the F-35B short takeoff and vertical landing variant of the Joint Strike Fighter is seen as a key system for these ships. Apparently, provision for the operation of UAVs is being included within the design.

Somali Pirates: Italy says US, UK forces free ship from pirates

UK MOD photo

Update on earlier report here, a report that Italy says US, UK forces free ship from pirates:

U.S. and British forces have freed an Italian cargo ship that had been attacked by pirates off Somalia, the Italian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday. The pirates surrendered and have been arrested.

The Montecristo was carrying a crew of 23—seven Italians, six Ukrainians and 10 Indians—when it was attacked Monday. The crew are free and safe, said a statement by the Foreign Ministry.

It said the raid had been carried out by two Navy ships, one British and one American.

The 11 pirates were apprehended, said the statement.

UPDATE: Early BBC report:

The UK's MoD said the British Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship Fort Victoria and a US frigate were sent to help the seized vessel.

Pirates surrendered after the two naval ships approached the Montecristo, said the MoD.

UPDATE: Latest BBC report:

British and US naval forces freed an Italian ship from Somali pirates after hostages threw an SOS message in a bottle from a porthole, Italy's defence minister has said.

Ignazio La Russa said the 23 hostages had locked themselves in the strong room of the 56,000-tonne Montecristo.

The bulk carrier had been seized 620 miles (1,000km) off Somalia on Monday.

The Royal Navy met no resistance on boarding it and detained 11 suspected pirates, UK defence officials said.

Gulf of Guinea Piracy: Tanker Grabbed Off Nigeria

Early report -AFP: Pirates hijack tanker off Nigerian coast:

Pirates have hijacked an oil tanker and its crew off the Nigerian coast, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said on Tuesday.

The pirates boarded the tanker, believed to be a Marshall Islands-flagged vessel, on Saturday, IMB manager Cyrus Mody told AFP from London.

Map and comments from the IMB Live Piracy Report site here,

Live Piracy Report
Attack Number: 359-11
Date: Sat Oct 08 2011
Type of Vessel : Product Tanker
***
Location detail: Around 90nm south of Lagos, Nigeria
Type of Attack : Hijacked
Narrations:
08.10.2011: 2040 UTC: Posn: 04:55N-003:16E, Around 90nm south of Lagos, Nigeria.
Pirates boarded and hijacked a product tanker drifting whilst awaiting orders and sailed to an unknown location. Further details awaited.

Somali Pirates: Some Collected Reports

First, the saga of the Captain of a ship being held by pirates and the treatment of crews at pirate hands in this piece from Expressindia.comCaptain tied up in dark cabin for 21 days, engineer dipped in water till he fainted:

Waiting for death, Makane had begun to hallucinate when, he said, he drew inspiration from Papillon by Henri Charrière, a convicted felon who later crafted a legendary escape. “Papillon never lost hope. I had to keep the faith,” Makane, 53, says of the 21 days of “pure torture” at the hands of Somalian pirates.

Second. a report from Italy on a plan to put armed guards on Italian merchant ships from here:

Italy is to station military forces on its merchant vessels to guard against attacks by Somali pirates, shipping sources said on Tuesday, the day after another of its ships was attacked off the anarchic east African country.

Many ships already carry private security contractors to try to prevent hijacks, but deployment of military forces on merchant vessels would mark a clear escalation in measures to combat piracy, which costs the world economy billions of dollars each year.

The sources said Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa would sign an agreement later on Tuesday with the confederation of Italian ship owners to put military guards on board vessels in the huge area of the Indian Ocean at risk from Somali pirates, who have hijacked several Italian ships.

Third, a suggestion that the current ant-piracy strategies are not working and a proposed shore based solution from here:

The question is: Are we getting it right in the way we are trying to solve the problem? Am afraid, the answer is No. The approximate annual cost of the international naval flotilla is said to be $2 billion; six times bigger than the cost of African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) since 2007. AMISOM seeks to restore the state of Somalia and subsequently a state of law and order. Without fear, pirates live on land and launch sea attacks from there. Why then shouldn’t we spend on land based measures, like supporting AMISOM than sea operations?

Syrian Jihadist Calls to Attack Iranian Ships in Suez Canal, Bab al-Mandab

SITE Intel Group reports Syrian Jihadist Calls to Attack Ships in Suez Canal, Bab al-Mandab:

A Syrian jihadist called upon fighters in Egypt and Yemen to strike Iranian ships passing through the Suez Canal and the Bab al-Mandab strait, explaining that these vessels primarily provide logistical and military support to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
***

I am unclear as to who should be condemned in this instance.

Somali Pirates: Ship Attack 10 Oct 11

Yellow arrow points to attack

Ship attack reported by NATO Shipping Center here:

Alert 227 / 2011 (AKA NSC 1) 10/10/2011 04:50 1231N 06148E Attacked
A piracy alert has been raised by the Maritime Security Centre.
Alert 227
Date of alert : October 10, 2011
Alert type : Pirate Attack
Location : [227] INDIAN OCEAN 12 31 N 061 48 E
Latitude : 12 31 N
Longitude : 043 01 E

At 0452 UTC / 10 OCT 11 / a merchant vessel is currently under attack by 1 skiff in position 12 31 N 061 48 E. Pirates used an RPG in this attack.

Vessels are advised to exercise extreme caution when navigating within 100 nautical miles of the position given in this report and maintain maximum CPA with any ship acting suspiciously.

NOTE: This attack is also referred to as NSC 1

This report may be related:

State TV in Italy says pirates have attacked an Italian cargo ship carrying 23 crew members in waters off Somalia.
The ship’s owner, D’Alessio Group, said five armed men conducted the attack Monday morning. But to protect the crew, the company said it would not provide any other details.
***
D’Allesio’s statement said the attack on its Montecristo ship occurred 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) off Somalia as the crew — seven Italians, six Ukranians and 10 Indians — was hauling scrap iron to Vietnam on a journey that began Sept. 20 in Liverpool, England.

If so, this may be the ship:

Photo by Ria Maat from Shipspotting.com and used iaw with terms of that site

UPDATE: 11 Oct 11 From the comments below an updated report from TradeWinds indicating the crew is in a citadel.

Somali Pirates: One Step Ahead?

Reported as "Pirates using mother ships, harder to track"

Somali pirates’ use of “mother ships” to attack their prey is complicating foreign navies’ efforts to improve safety in the Indian Ocean, a senior anti-piracy commander said Friday.

Somalia’s expanding army of pirates are increasingly launching their attacks from large, already hijacked vessels that offer greater physical protection during boarding and whose kidnapped crews act as human shields.

Speaking to reporters in the Kenyan port of Mombasa where his NATO flagship was docked, Commodore Michiel Hijmans said few pirates were still using their rudimentary skiffs to board vessels.

“Pirates have gone high tech and few use speed boats. They have switched to usage of mother ships,” said Hijmans, who currently commands NATO’s Ocean Shield anti-piracy mission.

“We cannot attack mother ships without proper planning since most of them have hostages on board,” said the Dutch navy commander.

Hijmans also explained that pirates operating on large hijacked vessels were able to extend their area of operation when on the prowl and were no longer confined to their coastal hideouts during monsoon seasons.

“The pirates can operate in the sea for long as they load the mother ships with enough food, fuel and militant weapons ready for a hijacking spree,” he said.

“Pirates are getting smarter every hour … Pirates do not give up unless they cannot board or are threatened. I’m afraid that the war on piracy might not be won until there is a stable government in Somalia,” he said.
***

Yeah, well, the pirates have been quicker to change their tactics in response to the situation they see than have the naval forces opposing them.

Algae Fuel "Investment" Baloney

Algae farm (claytonbodiecornell.greenoptions.com)

OK, in light of the "occupiers of Wall Street" complaining of - well, almost everything except labor unions and fire ant bites, here's a little addition to what they should be be concerned about - a government program to provide "venture capital" to a program that apparently has failed to find any real venture capitalists dumb enough to risk their own money in it. An example of "corporate welfare" if ever there was one.

Here,with a little highlighting from me, the "Algal Biomass Organization" offers up praise for an "investment" of $510 million from the USDA, DOE, and Navy (what does it matter whose budget the money comes from? It is all taxpayer money, extracted from the pockets of people who work for a living) into "biofuels" at "ABO Responds to USDA/DOE/Navy Biofuels Investment Promise" from Algae Industry Magazine:

The Algal Biomass Organization has voiced its opinion of the US government’s recently announced $510 million biofuels investment commitment over the next three years. Following is their statement: Late last month, three federal departments came together to launch an ambitious effort to commercialize next generation biofuels. The USDA, DOE and Navy announced an historic commitment to directly invest up to $510 million to retrofit and/or build facilities capable of producing drop-in replacement fuels. Funds from the private sector will be matched one-to-one, bringing the total potential available capital to more than $1 billion.

This announcement is a significant boon to our industry and comes at a time where several of our member companies are moving from lab to pilot, and from pilot to commercial production of algae-based drop-in fuels.

We’ve always praised the US military for its leadership in procuring and testing biofuels—their support has shown that domestic, sustainable fuels can perform at the highest levels of use. But until now, direct investment in companies or projects was not an option.

These three departments have rightly determined that it’s not going to be enough to just be a customer. They understand that the capital costs of facility construction are too high, and not the right model for venture capital, and the technologies still so new as to preclude traditional bank financing.

Let’s be clear – this is not a feel-good publicity stunt. This is an investment in the long-term national security and economic health of our country. As Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said: “America’s long-term national security depends on a commercially viable domestic biofuels market that will benefit taxpayers while simultaneously giving Sailors and Marines tactical and strategic advantages.”

What was most inspiring to me, however, was one aspect of the partnership that went under reported—where the funds were sourced. It turns out that no new authorizations are required (no surprise, given the current climate surrounding our national debt) because the funds have been pulled from elsewhere in the budget.

That means, for the first time in what seems like a long time, that advanced biofuels took precedence for limited funds. From the Obama administration to the departments of the Navy, Agriculture and Energy, the importance of accelerating commercialization of advanced biofuels is now a national priority.

It’s now up to our industry to take advantage of this opportunity and show what we can do.

Sincerely,
Mary Rosenthal

Let's take a look at the highlighted portions.

First, "three federal departments came together to launch an ambitious effort to commercialize next generation biofuels . . ." Uh, pumping federal taxpayer money into a project so iffy that its ". . . capital costs of facility construction are too high, and not the right model for venture capital, and the technologies still so new as to preclude traditional bank financing" means that taxpayers are at risk $510 million on something no rational commercial enterprise would fund (but for, apparently, the government decision to pony up money).

How does the government justify this? The Wall Street Journal editorial of 10 October 2011 has it just right, in describing the "Solyndra economy" mindset of this administration:

And there you have America's Solyndra economy, as the White House understands it: Washington allocates capital, and taxpayers pick up the tab if those choices go bust. Through this political lens, the August bankruptcy of the Fremont, Calif. company was a necessary casualty in the greater campaign to steer the U.S. economy toward Mr. Obama's noble goals. Private competition that winnows out losers is so yesterday.

Politics and a disdain of free markets triumphs economic sense. After all, throwing a big lump of government money at this project hardly seems capable of being described as an effort to "commercialize" anything. We might as well say we provide federal funding to "commercialize the next generation of grade schools." Ms. Rosenthal, I don't think that word means what you think it means.

Secondly, take a look at

What was most inspiring to me, however, was one aspect of the partnership that went under reported—where the funds were sourced. It turns out that no new authorizations are required (no surprise, given the current climate surrounding our national debt) because the funds have been pulled from elsewhere in the budget.

Are you kidding me? The Defense and Navy "budget" process is designed to put money on things that need money. Ship repair, aircraft repair, fuel, ammunition replacement, personnel costs and so forth, Stripping money from such allocations means something suffers. Yep, because "advanced biofuels took precedence for limited funds", something else, planned for as priority, suffered. Was it Seaman Johnny's advancement in rate? Did ships not get under way because they needed repair? Oh, those things are lower precedence, I suppose.

Further, as I have tried to say before, the issue here is not a shortage of domestic fuel that would help with "energy independence" but rather with an extreme "green" agenda that is distorting our economy and wasting taxpayer dollars (see Baloney at the Navy Top: "We use too much fossil fuel"). I am not opposed to the development of a biofuel that is self-funded and self-sustaining. I am opposed to this forced "create a market" by expending tax dollars approach.

If you think this is the wave of future, I invite you to invest your own hard-earned money into companies that produce this product, like Sapphire Energy (no, I don't own any stock, nor do I guarantee any financial results, and all private investments are subject to risk, just like investments in any other company and all the other disclaimers you can imagine) (UPDATE: Oh, wait, it's privately held.)(UPDATE2: Oh, wait, Sapphire Energy got a $50 million loan guarantee from the USDA as set out here to "to build an algae-based diesel biofuels plant in Columbus, New Mexico." - Hmmm.)

My previous rants against this "investment" can be found here, here, here and here.

Gulf of Guinea Pirates: Pirated Vessel Reportedly Found in Shipyard in Ghana

Red arrow points to Ghana

One of the differences between Gulf of Guinea piracy and Somali piracy is that the failed state of Somalia provides a couple of "safe havens" for the pirates to hold captured ships and their crews until they are ransomed, whereas the states along the Gulf of Guinea, while not all strong, have not failed to the extent of Somalia. However, even in these states, there just might be some level of corruption that might allow a different sort of piracy. It appears, according to this report, The Nation - "NIMASA traces missing vessel to Ghanaian shipyard", Ghana may have such a problem:

A Motor Tanker Vessel, MT KEMEPADE which was reported missing from the Lagos anchorage on Wednesday 28th September2011 has been found in a Ship Yard at Tema Habour in Ghana with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) number wipped off.

The Vessel, which was reported missing by the owner had one sailor on board at the time of the incident.

In line with her statutory responsibilities to ensure safety and security of ships on Nigerian waters, the Management of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, requested shipping in the area via radio to report sighting.

Aside of deploying Automatic Identification Tracking System (AIS),the Agency also collaborated with neigbouring countries such as Togo, Liberia and Benin through their Maritime Rescue Coordination Centers (MRCCs) to enhance the search operation.

Five days later, the Vessel was found in a Ship Yard at Tema Habour in Ghana with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) number completely wipped off.

While the Agency is yet to determin the fate of the sole crew member onboard at the time of dissapearance, NIMASA is liaising with Ghanian Authorities for further investigation.

Meanwhile, the agency has issued a stearn warning to all those who engage in illegal business in the nation’s territorial waters to desist from such acts henceforth.(sic)

If true, Ghana is not unique in having this issue. A few months ago, a hijacked tug was found in a shipyard in the Philippines, as noted here and there are previous incidents involving China.

Somali Pirates: The Attacks of Early October 2011 and Setting the Pirate Stage

The season of increasing Somali pirate attacks in the Indian Ocean has arrived. It is useful to see how early activity is shaping up and where NATO sees "Pirate Action Groups (PAGs)" forming up. So, take a look at the following:

From the NATO Shipping Center All Alerts, this list of October 2011 Somali pirate action and the accompanying map showing the incidents:

Alert 226 / 2011 06/10/2011 16:20 0601S 04220E Attacked At 1620 UTC / 06 OCT 11/ a merchant vessel was under attack by 2 skiffs in position 06-01S 042-20E. 2 skiffs, unknown POB, Weapons fired

click on map to enlarge

**This vessel managed to evade hijack**
The pirate action group is still in the area.

Alert 225 / 2011 03/10/2011 05:30 04 59N 058 00E Attacked
-- WARNING WARNING WARNING --
A fishing vessel was attacked by 2 skiffs in vicinity 04-59N 058-00E at 030532Z OCT 11.
***The Pirate Attack Group is still in the area***
***Vessel evaded hijack***
***Vessel is safe***
Vessels are advised to keep well clear of this position and exercise extreme caution if in the vicinity. While navigating in the region, vessels are urged to operate at a heightened state of readiness and implement Self Protective Measures in accordance with Best Management Practices. For further details, please see www.mschoa.org. or http://www.shipping.nato.int/Pages/BMP.aspx
***
Alert 224 / 2011 02/10/2011 09:20 1606N 06247E Attacked At 0921 UTC / 02 OCT 11 / a merchant vessel has been attacked by one dhow and two skiffs in position 16 06 N 062 47.0 E
***This vessel managed to evade hijack*** ***Vessel is SAFE*** The Pirate Attack Group is still in the area.

Alert 222 / 2011 02/10/2011 04:25 0355N 05620E Attacked At 0403 UTC / 02 OCT 11 / a merchant vessel has been attacked by skiff in position 03 55 N 056 20 E.

***This vessel managed to evade hijack***
***The vessel is safe***
The Pirate Attack Group is still in the area.
Vessels are advised to exercise extreme caution when navigating within 100 nautical miles of the position given in this report and maintain maximum CPA with any ship acting suspiciously.
Experience has shown that to transit W of 60E significantly increases the risk of piracy, although attacks have and will occur E of this area.
MSCHOA advises all vessels navigating in the Indian Ocean to consider keeping East of 60E when routing North/South and to consider routing East of 60E and South of 10S when proceeding to and from ports in South Africa, Tanzania and Kenya.
Vessels should report to UKMTO Dubai *** on entering the UKMTO Voluntary Reporting Area (VRA) bound by Suez,78E and 10S.
Thereafter vessels should report their position, course and speed daily.

Throughout the UKMTO VRA vessels should implement Self Protective Measures in accordance with Best Management Practices. For further details, please see www.mschoa.org. or http://www.shipping.nato.int/Pages/BMP.aspx

Upon receiving the vessels initial report, UKMTO will reply giving specific threat guidance relevant at the time.

***
Alert number 223 / 2011 02/10/2011 04:20 1302N 04851E Attacked At 0410Z UTC / 02 OCT / a merchant vessel was attacked by pirates in position 13 02 N 048 51 E.
***The vessel is safe***
While navigating in the region vessels are urged to operate at a heightened state of readiness, implement Self Protective (defensive) measures in accordance with Best Management Practices. For further details, please see www.mschoa.org. or http://www.shipping.nato.int/Pages/BMP.aspx

Merchant vessels are requested to report any suspicious activity to UKMTO Dubai ***

Now, as set out in Where the Somali Pirates Operate and Why, we can safely assume the pirates are aware of the more heavily traveled "sea lanes" or shipping routes that ships use to transit the Indian Ocean and will send out PAGs to allow interdiction of unwary, underprepared, low in the water and slow speed ships traveling those lanes.

You would expect then, that the pirates might have 4 or 5 areas where they would find the "hunting" particularly good.

And, if you overlay 2010 shipping info over the current NATO activity map, as I have done nearby, you see that the early PAGs are setting up at areas where the shipping is including a rich area (area marked "B" on my map) where shipping in and out of the Arabian Gulf is "choked" into a small area by the Strait of Hormuz.

Similarly, Area "A" is traffic "choked" by the narrow Bab el Mandab entrance/exit from the Red Sea, Area "C" is a catch point for traffic diverting to east on Madagascar, and Area "D" covers the coastwise chokepoint of entry into Kenya, Tanzania and the Madagascar Channel.

Exactly where you would expect smart pirates to be.

Danger Room Report: "Computer Virus Hits U.S. Drone Fleet"

This can't be good.

Danger Room report Exclusive: Computer Virus Hits U.S. Drone Fleet

Helps make the case for manned aircraft, does't it?

Somali Pirates: "Governments have ceded control of the Indian Ocean to pirates"

From an International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) Press Release:

Governments have ceded control of the Indian Ocean to pirates and the small deployment of naval forces to the region is like putting a band-aid on a gaping wound - so says ICS Chairman Spyros M Polemis.

And in a damning indictment of western governments, Mr Polemis will controversially suggest they would be acting differently if the many seafarers held hostage off the coast of Somalia were "Americans or Europeans".

Speaking at next week's Maritime Cyprus conference in Limassol on Monday (October 3rd) Mr Polemis will tell shipping professionals: "The fundamental problem is the lack of navy ships that are committed to protecting shipping - a band aid on a gaping wound, although the navies do an excellent job under the circumstances and we commend them for this."

In a straight-talking speech Mr Polemis is set to tell delegates that "by their own admission, the military advise that no ship is completely safe". He will say: "Sadly, one can only conclude from the current response of many governments that those thousands of seafarers that have so far been captured have simply had the wrong nationality. If they were all Americans or Europeans, the governments' attitude might have been somewhat different. It is really unacceptable that so many governments seem to feel that the current situation can somehow be tolerated, and that a box has been ticked by making a relatively small number of navy ships available to police Somalia's waters and the entire Indian Ocean."

Apologising for his "depressing" remarks he is set to conclude: "We appreciate that governments have many competing priorities, but I am afraid that they still seem to be lacking a coherent strategy to tackle the pirates head on."

While acknowledging that adherence to Best Management Practices and the use of private armed guards can both reduce the risks of capture, Mr Polemis will say that the escalating use of armed guards represents a failure by the international community to find an effective solution to the situation and will call for an increase in military force deployed to the Indian Ocean.

"I do wish to stress that, despite acknowledging their use, private armed guards do not represent a long term solution. Rather, their use actually signifies a failure on the part of the international community - and those governments with significant military forces - to ensure the security of maritime trade on which the whole world depends. Governments don't like it when we say this, but the reality is that they have ceded control of the Indian Ocean to the pirates.

He will continue: "The use of private guards does not mean that military forces are no longer needed. Far from it - they are needed more than ever and should be greatly increased in number."

ICS is in close contact with both EUNAVFOR and NATO discussing practical solutions to the problems in the Indian Ocean including a possible blockade of the Somali coast and tackling pirate 'motherships'. ICS is also in discussion with Flag States to ensure they take a coherent pan-industry approach to producing a proper framework for the use of armed guards.

Mr. Polemis is off base in suggesting that there is some sort of racial or ethnic reason behind the limited supply of naval forces protecting commercial shipping from men in small craft in a huge ocean. Quite simply, there are simply not enough available warships to do the job.

I have suggested a way around the shortage of warships, as set out in Department of Cheaper Pirate Fighting and the links therein.Notably, a number of private firms have taken up this challenge by providing their own security vessels.

The bias toward the high number of Third World nationals held by pirates lies in the hiring by commercial shipping companies of the lowest cost labor to sail the ships. {UPDATE: Sort of an aside (but in keeping with the topic) Shiptalk has a report of wage cheating of Filipino sailors here). These are generally Third World sailors getting extremely low pay and few benefits. "Europeans" and "Americans" are too high cost to sail these ships. These sailors often serve on ships not capable of meeting the speed standards necessary to out run a pirate attack and also serve on ships whose flag states do not allow private armed security teams on board. Further, many of the ships attacked are not sailing in convoys protected by the naval escorts that are out there.

Convoys are run by the Japanese, Russians, Thais and South Koreans.

Earth's Water Delivered By Comets?

Comet Hartley 2

Well, why not?

Interesting report from BBC News Comet's water 'like that of Earth's oceans':

Comet Hartley 2 contains water more like that found on Earth than all the comets we know about, researchers say.

A study using the Herschel space telescope aimed to measure the fraction of deuterium, a rare type of hydrogen, present in the comet's water.

Like our oceans, it had half the amount of deuterium seen from other comets.

The result, published in Nature, hints at the idea that much of the Earth's water could have initially come from cometary impacts.

Just a few million years after its formation, the early Earth was rocky and dry; most likely, something brought the water that covers most of the planet today.

Water has something of a molecular fingerprint in the amount of deuterium it contains, and only about half a dozen comets have been measured in this way - and all of them have exhibited a deuterium fraction twice as high as the oceans.

Asteroids, by contrast, give rise to the meteors and meteorites that arrive on Earth, making their deuterium fraction more well-established.

Meteoritic material has roughly the same proportion of deuterium that the Earth's oceans contain, and so the assumption has been that if water arrived from elsewhere, it came from asteroids.

Given the amount of water on earth, the delivery schedule must have been a long one.

Somali Pirates: The Chandler Captivity

Report by Jeffrey Gettleman on the captivity of an English yachting couple at the hands of Somali pirates at Taken by Pirates.

Turns out the pirates are not nice people.

Nice piece on the subject.

Hat tip to RBTIII

Another Kind of Piracy: U.S. Coast Guard Grabs "Stateless" Drift Netter Far Out at Sea

An little older report (press release dated 30 Sep 11, action on 7 Sep 11), but worth taking a look at as overfishing by illegal means damages the fisheries of the world: Coast Guard, NOAA nab drift net violator 2,600 miles offshore:

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The U.S. Coast Guard announced Friday that, in cooperation with federal and international partners, it has seized a fishing vessel and crew suspected of large-scale illegal high-seas drift net fishing in the North Pacific Ocean and is delivering them to the Alaska Division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Law Enforcement for the investigation.

Renegade large-scale high-seas drift net fishing indiscriminately kills massive amounts of fish and other marine life such as whales and turtles by means of enormous nets suspended for miles in open water. The practice is universally condemned and is a significant threat to ocean ecosystems and to the food and economic security of nations that rely on fishery resources.

PACIFIC OCEAN – The crew of the Bangun Perkasa, a stateless fishing vessel suspected of illegal large-scale high-seas drift net fishing, tend their fishing nets prior to a Coast Guard law enforcement boarding conducted by the Kodiak-based Coast Guard Cutter Munro Sept. 7, 2011. The U.S. Coast Guard actively participates in the international cooperative efforts against large-scale high-seas drift net fishing as encouraged by the United Nations moratorium. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Coast Guard Cutter Munro.

Acting on vessel sighting information provided by a maritime patrol airplane from the Fisheries Agency of Japan, Sept. 7, the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Munro launched its MH-65 Dolphin helicopter and crew and located the fishing vessel Bangun Perkasa with 22 fishermen aboard, approximately 2,600 miles southwest of Kodiak, Alaska.

The Bangun Perkasa’s crew reportedly abandoned their fishing nets and attempted to leave the area once they spotted the helicopter flying above them. The vessel was determined to be operating without valid flag state registration, and seized as a stateless vessel for violations of U.S. law. A Munro boarding team determined the vessel had more than 10 miles of drift net, 30 tons of squid and approximately 30 shark carcasses aboard. They retrieved the abandoned net and began the lengthy escort toward Dutch Harbor, Alaska.

Somali "Pirates attack drillship offshore Tanzania"

Somali pirates involved as "Pirates attack drillship offshore Tanzania":

According to a report from Reuters, Somali pirates have attacked an oil and gas drillship in the Indian Ocean offshore Tanzania.

Seven Somali pirates have been arrested after they attacked the Ocean Rig Poseidon drillship operating for Brazilian major Petrobras offshore Tanzania, reported Reuters.

Seven pirates attacked the drillship from a small boat using weapons, but security aboard the rig and the Tanzanian Navy returned fire, captured and arrested the men.

Full Reuters report here:

"In the incident, seven pirates in a small boat attacked the ship with weapons. Security personnel on the ship with the help of the Tanzanian navy returned fire and managed to subdue and arrest the pirates."

The incident, which officials said occurred late on Monday about 82 nautical miles from the capital Dar es Salaam, brings to 18 the total number of pirates arrested in Tanzania following attacks in its Indian Ocean territorial waters.

Tanzania in April ordered its army to escort ships searching for oil and gas off its coast to protect them from Somali pirates, who are suspected of kidnapping expatriate workers on exploration ships for hefty ransoms.

Analysts had warned Somali pirates were likely to turn to softer targets, such as tourists in Kenya, in response to more robust defense of merchant vessels by private security guards.

An Unimportant Navy News Release

Pilotless aircraft in a pilot program (U.S. Navy photo by Kelly Schindler)

Fire Scout Completes First Navy Unmanned Flight on Biofuel

To which my mind says, "So what?"

What did the testers think was going to happen? Hadn't they tested the fuel ahead of time?

If it's fuel that burns in a gas turbine, it's gas turbine fuel. I don't believe there will be much chemically different from a fuel based on petroleum. In fact, I bet it is almost like a petroleum product.

The question of whether or not Department of Navy funds should be diverted to support this "biofuel" industry is not answered by this sort of rigged test. As I've noted over and over, the U.S. has plenty of fossil fuels available to help us become energy independent - the announced goal of the Secretary of the Navy and his ultimate boss, the President. SecNav's pitch, which we heard repeatedly during a DoD Bloggers Roundtable with him earlier this year, is that he is seeking alternative fuels that, essentially, cost the "same" as fossil fuel products. Oddly enough, fossil fuels cost the same as fossil fuels and don't require a dime of Navy (taxpayer) money to develop a market or to build refineries, pipelines and the like.

The "Green" Navy and "Energy Independence" were the topics of DoDLive Bloggers Roundtable: Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus. From the transcript:

SecNav: ***The most overarching or broadest goal was by no later than 2020, at least half of all Navy energy, both afloat and ashore, would come from non-fossil fuel sources. I did this to address a vulnerability. We simply buy too much petroleum from volatile places on earth, and we need to address that vulnerability to reduce our dependence on foreign sources of fuel.

My translation: "So, instead of focusing on buying fuel from non-volatile places (like say, the U.S. and Canada), we have decided create a whole new industry using your tax dollars."

The U.S. Navy's least polluting ship?

SecNav: The Navy will do two things. One is, we will make our contribution of about $170 million to help either build or retrofit biofuel plants for -- to produce biofuel. We will also be willing to sign offtake contracts so that we will provide the market for these biofuels. And finally, earlier this summer, the Defense Logistics Agency, on behalf of the Navy, issued a request for proposals for 450,000 gallons of biofuels for our test purposes, which we think is the largest biofuel purchase ever undertaken in the United States.

My translation: "Biofuel production is not 'shovel ready' so we are going to take taxpayer money and try to push production of this product into a market in which the only real demand will be the taxpayer funded military. Building plants and all that is needed to get the biofuels ready for real production has yet to be accomplished."

The Pirates of Puntland - A new blog

Canadian author/journalist Jay Bahadur has a new blog called The Pirates of Puntland.

Mr. Bahadur is the author of a recent book on the pirates - during the research of which he went and lived among them. The book is The Pirates of Somalia: Inside Their Hidden World, a copy of which I have just placed on my Kindle. Here's a blurb describing the book:

Jay Bahadur, a journalist who dared to make his way into the remote pirate havens of Africa’s easternmost country and spend months infiltrating their lives, gives us the first close-up look at the hidden world of the pirates of war-ravaged Somalia.

Bahadur’s riveting narrative exposé—the first ever—looks at who these men are, how they live, the forces that created piracy in Somalia, how the pirates spend the ransom money, how they deal with their hostages. Bahadur makes sense of the complex and fraught regional politics, the history of Somalia and the self-governing region of Puntland (an autonomous region in northeast Somalia), and the various catastrophic occurrences that have shaped their pirate destinies. The book looks at how the unrecognized mini-state of Puntland is dealing with the rise—and increasing sophistication—of piracy and how, through legal and military action, other nations, international shippers, the United Nations, and various international bodies are attempting to cope with the present danger and growing pirate crisis.

More recently, Mr. Bahadur wrote an opinion piece attacking the idea that poverty in Somalia has driven men to the sea as pirates. The piece, "Don't shed any tears for Somalia's pirates," is not gentle on the motivation of most of the pirates:

With southern Somalia in the midst of its worst drought in six decades, the world is once again faced with an abominable humanitarian crisis, the most dire since the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004. But the international community's sympathy for Somalis should not be extended to the pirates plying their waters, a cohort of avaricious and often barbaric criminals who hold no compunction about turning on their own countrymen to make a buck.
***
Piracy has never been directly correlated to hunger and poverty in Somalia; within the country itself, relatively worse-off regions have not spawned greater numbers of pirates, nor has piracy tended to escalate during times of greater hardship.
***
For most young pirates, entering the trade is more opportunism than desperation; more pull than push. Like inner-city youth who turn to drug dealing, the “game” offers young Somali men a chance to taste the respect and status that the circumstances of their birth have denied them.

In Somalia, I spoke with Hussein Hersi, whose cousins had been involved in the May, 2009, hijacking of the German-owned cargo ship MV Victoria. Sitting on a veranda one windy day in June, Mr. Hersi described his cousins' motivations: “They're suicidal,” he said. “As they are heading into the ocean, they say to themselves, ‘Either I capture a ship, or I die.' They say, ‘If I don't get a Land Cruiser, it's better to be dead.' ”

Ironically, the pirates' vehicular obsessions often turn out to be more deadly than their occupation. Most lack even a high-schooler's ability to drive, a fact attested by the broken-down four-wheeler chassis that routinely line the embankment of Puntland's sole paved highway. One pirate in the Victoria gang, drunk for the first time, came within a few tire spins of driving off a cliff, his demise averted only by his passenger reaching across and jamming his foot on the brake.

Pirate proclivities have not changed much since I was last in Somalia, as was made evident in a recent exposé by the local news site SomaliaReport, whose correspondent visited the pirate hot spot of Hobyo to investigate how the brigands spent their cash. He discovered scores of Land Cruisers abandoned along the beach owing to various problems – in some cases, nothing more than scratches of paint or a cracked windshield, which the pirates considered beneath their dignity to repair.

For such trivialities they kidnap, kill, and hijack.

The blog and the book are well worth your time.

Hat tip to Daniel Sekulich and his blog, Modern Day Pirate Tales.

Catching Up

Having had a couple of days off, it's time to play "catch up"- let's start with an annoying BBC article BBC News - Somali pirates face hard time in US prison, in which the sympathy is entirely misplaced. Further, the article originally had a completely different title, which Lex captured as "Somali pirates face hell in US prison system." When I first saw the original headline, I wondered if the "hell" they will experience in U.S. prisons is even a vague shadow of the "hell" of a Somali prison or even daily Somali life for that matter. But the article is even more biased than its headline:

Federal prison is a frightening, perilous environment of intrigue, violent gangs, terrible food and severe isolation, even for the most hardened criminal.

For men from a faraway land with little or no English-language skills and no prior familiarity with American culture, it will be especially hard, say lawyers for the men, and experts in psychology and the criminal justice system.
***
On Monday, Muhidin Salad Omar and Mahdi Jama Mohamed were sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to their part in the hijacking in February of the yacht S/V Quest, in which pirates shot to death four American yachters as the US Navy sought their release.

On Tuesday, four more men are to be sentenced to automatic life terms in prison following their guilty pleas to piracy counts in the Quest case. More are to be sentenced in the autumn.
***
Language and cultural barriers will make it difficult for the men to form the support groups and informal social networks that lawyers and social workers say are necessary to get by in prison.

"They have all the stressors associated with prison," says Frederic Reamer, a professor of social work at Rhode Island College with extensive experience working in prisons and a member of the Rhode Island state parole board.

"But unlike most inmates, they cannot just go into the dining hall and sit at a table and start conversing with people with whom they have some shared cultural experience. They are likely to be isolated in every imaginable way."

God spare from bleeding heart professors of social work. I figure under some Somali law, we could have simply stoned these guys to death, as it seems to be a favored punishment. Read the part again about how these pirates "shot to death four American yachters."

Isn't it interesting that as the assertions of the world "running out of fossil fuels" continue to be heard that we keep finding more? Here's a report of a possible discovery off Sri Lanka -

While further drilling is required to determine the commerciality of the natural gas discovery, this is the first oil and gas well to be drilled in Sri Lanka in 30 years -- and the first hydrocarbon discovery ever in the country.

Which reminds me that the gas field off Cyprus continues to be a blip in international relations. The Turkish government has deployed a ship to "investigate" the waters off Northern Cyprus, as set out here. Saturn5 from Bosphorus Naval News has a series of posts on the topic, Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. It's all about the gas and oodles of money. The Russians, the French and others are out there playing hard.

Criminals Grab Disabled French Woman from Kenyan Island

Or, as the BBC puts it, "French woman kidnapped in Kenya resort":

A French woman has been kidnapped by an armed gang on Kenya's northern resort island of Manda, officials say.

The elderly woman - who is said to be disabled - was attacked at a rented thatched bungalow at Ras Kitau.

Witnesses said they heard shots being fired before the woman was taken away in a motorboat.

Two coastguard ships later surrounded the boat carrying the attackers and the hostage near the Somali border, Kenya's tourism minister said.

Najib Balala added that the attackers were firing into the air - apparently to try to scare off the vessels.

A police helicopter is also taking part in the rescue operation.

Whether the attackers are Kenyan, Somali or some combination thereof, they are certainly among the scum of the earth.