Piracy port breach will force fresh thinking
Pirates are getting bolder in their quest for ship booty
The scourge of modern day piracy has prompted shivers down the spine of many a hard-working ship owner. With one of the world’s key shipping arteries at the top of the Gulf of Aden, avoidance of the area is unrealistic.
Ship operators, and consequently their crews, have had to take their chances against these heavily-armed and desperate bandits.
Ports have kept a weather eye on the situation, sympathising with the operational headaches and empathising with the emotional heartache. But the threat has been kept at arm’s length; a distant concern whose only impact on port operations might be a delayed call due to an extended wait for a naval convoy through the infected area.
However, this evasion came to an abrupt end in August with the news that a ship at anchor at the Omani Port of Salalah was the latest hijacking victim. The Anglo-Eastern Ship Management chemical tanker was in a designated anchorage within the Salalah port limit waiting for berthing instructions. It was captured and its 21-strong crew were taken hostage, with the ship leaving Salalah bound for the Somali coast.
This disturbing escalation means ports now need to pay more than lip service to the problem of piracy. When pirates are emboldened, or perhaps desperate, enough to enter the port limits to take ships ports need to re-assess the efficiency of offshore security.
With ships thought to be safe within port limits, provisions to deter pirates might have been scant in the past, but ports must now up their game to maintain that safe haven in their waters, especially around the ruinous Gulf of Aden.
Of course, piracy is not restricted to the Somalian vicinity; the current list of piracy prone areas published by the International Maritime Bureau covers 20 countries in Asia, Africa, South America and the Middle East. Brazil, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Peru are perhaps some of the more unexpected names on that warning role call. If ships at anchor in port limits are now seen as fair game, operators should monitor that list closely.
Not only will ship operators be more demanding in their assessment of port security in these areas, but insurers will also be re-assessing the security levels of ports in piracy zones.
And with pirates finding ever more astute ways to extend their catchment area, ports previously marked as ‘safe’ may now find they have unwittingly slipped into a piracy prone area. It doesn’t take a genius to work out how that might affect future port calls and operations.
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