Nearly half of all recorded maritime piracy worldwide in 2010 has been attributed to Somali pirates, with a cost to the international community of over USD $8bn a year. And that’s just the financial impact; some 62 deaths and many more injuries of over 3500 captives in the last four years have been due to Somali pirates. Unfortunately, these figures only tell part of the whole story of recent maritime piracy. For a myriad of political and commercial reasons, piracy is often downplayed and underestimated by both governments and industry. The International Maritime Bureau (IMB), for example, estimates that as many as half of all pirate attacks go unreported. Attacks and hijackings of ships by Somali pirates in waters off the Horn of Africa have sharply increased in recent years, and show no sign of waning. But while the number of attacks per year continues to increase, 2011 saw a 40% drop in ‘successful’ attacks – or hijackings – compared to the previous year. The drop in successful attacks could be due to a number of factors such as increased security – but satellites show that climate is also controlling piracy |