From 
Del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
StumbleUpon
TwitThis
- Crisis state
Piracy is down in many previously risky seas. Why are the waters off Somalia teeming with it? "It's hard to find a better pirate base than Somalia," says Alex Duperouzel of Background Asia Risk Solutions, which provides armed escorts for merchant ships. In a state that combines desperate poverty and a nearby oceanic superhighway of international commerce, hijackers are local heroes, spreading their loot around hungry villages and enriching their clans. According to one report, a typical million-dollar ransom is divvied up like this: The pirates keep $300,000, with the first-to-board-the-boat getting a double share. The rest of the money goes to repay financial backers, reward land-based accomplices, sow goodwill locally—and sometimes fund the acquisition of a second or third wife. While some say piracy will disappear when order comes to Somalia itself, the United States is hesitant to land troops in this essentially lawless nation, which hasn't had a central government for the past 18 years. - Ransoms
Before the April hijacking of the Maersk Alabama ended with Navy SEAL snipers picking off three pirates after a five-day standoff, hostages typically took a trip to shore. There the outlaws awaited an almost guaranteed ransom payment. Private shipping companies find about $1 million a ship a smaller price to pay than the loss of crew and cargo and quietly shelled out as much as $150 million in ransoms last year—something many argue just keeps pirates coming back for more. - Who pays
Estimates of piracy's impact on world trade range from $1 billion to $16 billion annually. Some ships have begun taking the long route, around Africa's Cape of Good Hope (cost: up to $500,000 a sail), to avoid the Gulf of Aden, off Somalia. Since everything from refrigerators to oil is shipped through this channel on the way to the Suez Canal, the rising costs of transport and insurance will be passed on to us. - The pirate POV
"We don't consider ourselves sea bandits. We consider sea bandits those who illegally fish and dump in our seas," said a "pirate spokesman" when the Ukrainian cargo ship Faina was hijacked in September. In the aftermath of the Maersk rescue, a harsher tone quickly emerged: "We will hunt down American citizens traveling our waters."
Pirate attacks are way up this year—nearly double what they were at this point in 2008. The jump is due almost entirely to activity off Somalia (although waters off Peru also showed an increase). Assaults are down near Bangladesh and Indonesia, which had previously been danger zones.
April 8, around 5:30 a.m., Maersk Alabama is seized by pirates about 300 miles off coast of Somalia.
- 102 attacks in 2009 so far
- 9 vessels now held by pirates
- 17 crew members from 36 countries now in captivity
Advertisement 
