Pirates in the News, November 2008 part 3

ANIMAL EDITION!

Now that my epic task of recounting things that are directly pirate related in the news, it's on to tangential and simply entertaining news.
If you haven't yet caught Animal Planet's Whale Wars, you may very well be entertained. Following the Sea Shepard's Whale-saving ship the Steve Irwin. You can see pirates where profit is not the motive. Next year, Daryl Hannah will be joining the crew. I think the show speaks for itself, and you will either find it hilarious or appalling or triumphant as is your nature.

Warner Brothers has hired a writer for their slated remake of Captain Blood.
The US Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the Navy in a dispute over Sonar's affect on whales.

The court, in its first decision of the term, voted to allow the Navy to conduct realistic training exercises to respond to potential threats by enemy submarines.

Environmental groups had persuaded lower federal courts in California to impose restrictions on sonar use in submarine-hunting exercises to protect whales and other marine mammals. Environmentalists link sonar to beached whales, internal bleeding around marine mammals' brains and ears, and other damage.

I like to think that they scrawled "Suck it, Whales!" in the margin of their opinions, but they probably didn't, they probably typed them.

I also would like to pretend the next story is related.

David Sheridan was riding his board at Valla Beach on the northern coast of New South Wales state on Oct. 26 when he noticed a large shadow in the water in front of him.

"At first I thought it was the shadow from my kite. But I quickly realized it was a whale," said Sheridan, a 42-year-old high school teacher. He commented to The Associated Press by e-mail.

"The whale kept coming up. ... I did not know what to expect and I went over its back just past its fin," he said. "Next thing I felt was its tail come up and hit me on the back of the head."

Pirates in the News! April 16.2008

While the Crew of La Ponant has returned safely to their countries of origin it's time to catch up on pirate news last week:

Eclipsed by news of La Ponant, a different, Australian crew was ransomed last week, the Sea Shepard anti-seal-hunting vessel's

Surrounded by media and shipmates of the seized Farley Mowat anti-sealing vessel, U.S.-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society head Paul Watson described to reporters outside a Sydney courthouse Monday, the similarities between the arrests of two senior crew members and a pirate tale.

“We don’t regard it as bail, we regard it as ransom. It’s a pirate action. They boarded our vessel on the high seas at gunpoint. They stole all of our property, our cameras,” Watson said before unloading a sack filled with $10,000 in Canadian toonies and bills, which he referred as “doubloons” or pirate gold.

The crew of the Farley Mowat face charges under Australia's Federal Fisheries act for approaching a seal-fishing vessel too closely without authorization as well as several individual accounts of obstruction.

The Malacca strait has long been a hotbed of pirate activity, but in the Pirate Whack-a-Mole on the High Seas (thanks you New York Times for the headline, you are truly the paper of record =P), but according to a Malaysian Defense official, there wasn't a single attack in 2007.

"From January to late December 2007, we recorded zero percent pirate attacks in the Malacca Straits and also recorded a reduction in pirate attacks in the waterways of Sabah and Sarawak (on Borneo Island)," Bashirabu Bakar told Bernama news agency.

One can easily see how a major security presence in one area deflects piracy to other, easier to pirate areas, and that's what's happened here. Similarly, it was reported a few months ago that certain areas of the Somalian Coast where joint military efforts have been protecting shipping have led to declines in piracy there.


Of course, International piracy continues with Nigeria and Somalia being the countries where the most attacks occurred according to the International Maritime Bureau.

Nigeria now ranks as the number one hot spot in the world this quarter, overtaking Indonesia for the first time in 16 years, the IMB said.

"Vessels have been fired upon and crew injured as a result. Many of the attacks are concentrated off Lagos," it said.

Indonesia, which fell to third spot, saw just four attacks in the first quarter compared with nine previously.

Of course, If you've been reading this blog, you know that Nigeria isn't taking its new status sitting down, just last week they sent another group of troops to help in the Nimassa area.

Also, I stumbled upon this blog in my piratey travels this week, it's fascinating.

'Manoeuvre' in Maritime Asia

Pirates in the News! January 17, 2008

According to a new study Columbus Carried Syphilis from the New World to Europe
researchers using the genetic markers in syphilis have found evidence that supports the idea that frisky sailors carried the disease from America to Europe. The Spanish Pox (also known as the English Pox, French Pox, Italian Pox and "Various Other Country we dislike at the time" Pox) appeared in its modern sexually transmitted form approximately 3 years after Columbus first returned from his expeditions.

This new research also says that it may have been transmitted non-sexually before it mutated into its modern form. Meaning the jury is still out on where syphilis originated.

For those of you saying eww, just be glad I didn't post pictures of sores, very gross.


You may remember that I reported on the Sea Shepard Alliance's efforts to attack whalers off Antarctica, this has taken an interesting turn as two of the environmentalists have been taken hostage by Japanese whalers.

Hideki Moronuki, the Japanese Fisheries Agency's chief of whaling, said the two anti-whaling activists taken aboard the Japanese ship would not be released unless Sea Shepherd stopped "dangerous and illegal activities".

The two men - Australian Benjamin Potts and Briton Giles Lane - have been held on the Japanese whaling ship the Yushin Maru No.2 since yesterday.

Sea Shepherd has said the men were trying to deliver a protest letter to the Japanese crew.

"The ICR (Institute of Cetacean Research) is ready to release the two intruders provided that full security can be secured for our research vessel. Sea Shepherd is a very violent organisation," Moronuki said.

What a twist, right?

Pirates in the News! December 14, 2007

It's time for yet another installment of Pirates in the News, this week there's some examples of the Good, the Bad and the historic.

To start off, when looking at pirates one has to remember that they are more than fun loving desperadoes, pirates are responsible for some seriously disgusting feats of brutality.

Somali Pirates Threaten to Kill Hostages
"Somali pirates holding the Japanese ship are demanding $1 million," said Andrew Mwangura, head of the Kenya-based East Africa Seafarers' Assistance Program. "They are also saying we are going to kill the crew if our demands are not met."

The US led Navy in the area has had the ship surrounded since late October, but the pirates remain in control of the Benzene tanker.

UPDATE: Pirates Release Japanese Tanker


6,000 Women of the Bonny Kingdom marched last week in Protest of the pirates.
Over 6,000 mothers and daughters of Bonny Kingdom on Thursday took to the streets of the island in protest of the rising activities of sea pirates on the Bonny/Port Harcourt waterway, which has claimed many lives and is taking serious tolls on the economy of the island.

Sea Shepard "pirates" set to take on whales.

Much like Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior the Sea Shepard alliance has announced its intentions to ram Japanese whaling ships in Antarctic waters that are preying on endangered cetations. The yearly Japanese whaling harvest kills over 1000 whales in the Southern Oceans. While their actions are illegal and violent, it is interesting to see how varied the actions of "pirates" can be.

Indiana University team finds fabled Pirate Ship

Members of a team from Indiana University believe they have discovered Captain Kidd's fabled treasure ship.

"We've got a shipwreck in crystal clear, pristine water that's amazingly untouched," Beeker said in a press release from the university. Now they hope to see the wreck preserved.

Capt. William Kidd was at first hired by the British government to raid enemy shipping in the 1600s. But after capturing the heavily laden Quedagh, he was accused of turning pirate. He sailed the ship to the Caribbean, where he offloaded most of her loot and left her in the care of a small crew in 1699 while he headed to New York in a doomed effort to clear his name.

That's exciting news pirate fans, and stay tuned for a more complete biography of Captain Kidd.