There are several ongoing situations still evolving out there in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Somalia. Yes, we’re dealing with pirates.

It’s just absolutely wild to think that in the last year 60 boats have been hijacked and more than $80 million in ransom paid.

You know, we’re living in a world of great high-tech, of great military might, and we’re back with Terry and the Pirates.
PG: I spoke with Colonel Jack Jacobs, NBC military analyst. Jack, we’ve talked about this before but now they’ve upped the ante because now it was an American-flagged vessel involved.

JJ: Yes, and recently pirates have captured others, including a vessel with 16 Italians onboard. But yes, an American-flagged vessel was captured by pirates in the Gulf of Aden.

PG: We can get out a map and look at how big that coastline is, but still, in the year 2009 wouldn’t you think we’d go back to convoys?

JJ: You’d think we would but what it requires is an international compact, which we do not now have. Each of the maritime countries—which includes Europe, Russia and China, all of which have a great deal of traffic in their region—would have to come to an agreement to establish an exclusionary zone, and then to enforce it. We now have technology by which we can pinpoint almost anything at any distance, even in an area as large as this one, which is a million square miles. Without an agreement, this stuff will continue.

PG: Many U.S.-based cruise ships have a weapon on board called a “sonic blaster” which sends out a sound wave at about 150 decibels that will break everybody’s eardrums. That’s what they used on the Seabourn ship when it was approached and they actually fired some rocket-propelled grenade launchers at the ship about eight or nine months ago.

JJ: Yes, not all ships have this. Another recent incident was a thwarted attempted on a Panamanian flagship that was about 22,000 tons—bigger than the one that was actually captured last week. They thwarted the attempt to board by using water cannons and the pirates ran off. Just about anything will work but the only thing that will actually prevent it is an international compact that is enforced by military might—an exclusionary zone. If you are not a noted flag carrier, if you have not filed a maritime equivalent of a flight plan, and you are in this exclusionary zone, you will be sunk. This is how the Israelis prevent Palestinians from coming ashore in the eastern Mediterranean—they shoot the area up. They’ve established an exclusionary zone, and they patrol it.

PG: You’ve got to hand it to the Somalis because they’ve got a great business plan.

JJ: It’s a wonderful business plan: huge earnings, very low overhead, no insurance needed, no human resources. They don’t have to follow by any rules.

PG: Just as long as the Somalis don’t invest their money with Bernie Madoff we’ve got it made! But in all seriousness, as far as our Navy presence there—I know we have at least one Coast Guard cutter ship—but we don’t have a lot of ships out there do we?

JJ: We don’t, and the ones we do have are busy patrolling the Straits of Hormuz, the Gulf of Aden, the area of the Persian Gulf. But we do have electronic means of surveillance. The real question is this: What are we willing to do once we determine there is a threat to shipping? And so far the answer has been that we are not willing to do anything militarily. As a result we have what is happening now. Negotiations are almost always successful from the pirates’ standpoint because they extract tribute in the form of a ransom payment. Right now there are 17 ships that we know of—significant ships that are under the control of pirates—in various stages to pay ransom, and the ransoms are always paid. As a result of that, maritime insurance rates are through the roof. Eventually this is going to have to stop one way or another but it will require an agreement.

PG: Let’s not forget that starting now those insurance policies will probably contain a “Somali exclusion” clause. Now with the exception of that Seaborn Cruise ship and the French ship, we really haven’t seen too many attacks on cruise lines.

JJ: Cruise ships are very difficult to control because they’ve got thousands of people aboard. What you need is more than one potential hostage, but fewer than thousands. It’s almost impossible to commandeer and hold on to a cruise ship. There’s an old military adage which says, “It doesn’t take as many resources to take an objective than to hold onto it,” and that’s true in this case too.

Read more from Peter’s Travel Detective Blog.

Related links on PeterGreenberg.com:

• Captain Rescued, Somali Pirates Threaten Revenge After Sniper Deaths
• Hijacked American Crew Wrests Control from Pirates
• Pirates of Somalia No Pirates of the Caribbean
• MS Nautica Cruise Ship Evades Somali Pirates
• Pirates Grow Bolder, Target Cruise Ships
• The White House Takes on the Pirates
• Somali Pirates Seize More Ships
• The Real-Life Pirates Hunters
• Peter’s Blog: Bangkok, Pirates and Sonic Blasters