The struggle to combat piracy on the high seas

The pirate has long been idealized as a rugged individual who roams the high seas in search of grog, booty and tavern wenches.

However, today’s buccaneers are a new breed of pirates: wooden triremes and flintlock pistols have been replaced by rubber rafts and machine guns but their love of plunder is still very much intact.

Following the April 12, 2009 rescue of Richard Phillips, captain of the container ship Maersk Alabama, the question of how to combat these seafaring vigilantes has once again returned to mainstream debate.

The obvious answer is to arm the crews of merchant vessels. A well-armed and prepared crew has a much higher chance of avoiding being taken hostage than an otherwise unarmed vessel.

Thus, the need for United States Navy sharpshooters to kill three Somali pirates in the rescue of Cpt. Phillips instead of paying $2 million in ransom would have been unnecessary. Already, other Somali pirates are promising retribution upon the next American seaman captured for their dead brethren.

The worry of arming merchant vessels crews though is the risk that a crew will be killed defending their ship instead of being taken alive and ransomed later.

Currently, international maritime rules pushed through by the United States after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks “authorize captains to monitor maritime security in their vicinity and maintain their vessels at elevated levels of vigilance in response to dangers.” This is simply not enough to ensure the safety of our crews, especially when pirates follow no laws except their own.

By definition, a pirate is loyal only to their captain out of fear and themselves out of greed.

If these individuals follow no code of conduct, then why should our forces show mercy in their attempts to curb the rise in piracy off the coast of Somalia and Africa’s eastern seaboard?

At the very least, crewmembers of merchant vessels should possess the ability to defend themselves and their cargo, regardless of bans by individual countries on commercial vessel crews being armed.

With that said, it is of equal (if not greter) importance to recognize the socio-political conditions which have led to this revival of piracy in the Sea of Asad.

In Somalia, the central government collapsed in 1991. For the past 18 years, the Somalian people have existed in a virtual state of anarchy in their struggle to stay alive.

When over-fishing in the tuna-rich waters of the Sea of Asad by foreign fishermen began in earnest in the early 1990’s, Somalian fishermen turned from a legitimate life to one of piracy. Fueled by equal parts nationalism and greed, these individuals have managed survive lucratively into the 21st century.

According to John S. Burnett, who was attacked by pirates in 1992 and later wrote the book “Dangerous Waters: Modern Piracy and Terror on the High Seas,” the attraction of a life of piracy is an irresistible moneymaking scheme, where thousands of dollars can be made with one successful ransom.

“Poor fishermen know now that hijacking ships in far more lucrative than hauling up a half-empty fishing net,” said Burnett. He believes the Internet has also propagated a revival of piracy with the publication of stories of successful pirate raids inspiring desperate fishermen worldwide a solution to their economic woes.

Can we successfully combat piracy by simply arming our merchant vessels? I am tempted to agree with Burnett, who believes arming crews will only lead to more deaths.

How then? Through a combination of factors, it has been shown piracy can be reduced significantly over time. A perfect example of this is the outbreak of piracy in Indonesia in the 1990’s. Solutions included increased coast guard patrols, a government sponsored crackdown on piracy and the utilization of radar and remote-operated drones to locate pirate vessels in advance.

If the United States Navy took these lessons to heart, perhaps calling in sharpshooters to save hostages by assassinating their captors would be unnecessary.

While it is fortunate that Cpt. Phillips has returned home, it is lamentable these individuals with nowhere else to turn are being killed because of the desperate nature of life in Somalia.

Matthew Gainty can be contacted at opinions@keeneequinox.com.