Pirates in the News! March 21, 2008

Most of the pirate news this week comes out of Nigeria where piracy has been increasing in the past several months.

Nigeria is Africa's largest producer of oil and has a correlating high incidence of piracy feeding off of it. Officials are saying that the recent rise in pirate activity is because of a decrease in security in the region.

"Before, it was maybe one death every two months or once in a fortnight, but five deaths in five different locations and five different companies?" says Paul Kirubakaran, managing director of the Seabless fishing company, whose boats are among the 200 shrimp and fishing vessels docked in Nigeria's commercial capital since a strike began in January. "When people are killed like this how can we ask them to go back [to sea]?"

With the increase in piracy there are also increased reporting of raids and other incidents around the coast of Nigeria. Such as this raid against pirates last week.

"We have been receiving reports of robberies on that route, so we positioned our men. This morning, unknown to the pirates, our men were around the area when they tried to rob some passenger boats and we engaged them in a long gun battle."

In Somalia the Svitzer Korsakov and its crew was released by its pirate captors:

A local government official says the British captain, Irish engineer and four Russian crew aboard the Svitzer Korsakov are all "safe and healthy" after being held for more than a month.

Ahmed Said Aw-Nur, ports minister in Puntland, a semi-autonomous region of northeast Somalia, says the ship was freed after its Danish owner "negotiated with the criminals and paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for ransom."

The Canadian Press reports that the hostages were released after a ransom of $700,000 was paid.

Pirates in the News! February 29, 2008

Ahrrrr, News.

Since I am writing to all of you from America, in the grand tradition of American news outlets I'll lead with the Oscars.

Best Actor Winner, Daniel Day Lewis sets new Pirate Earring Trend.

Ok, now to harder news,

Nigeria, how pirate your news is, The Nigerian Navy has been assuring the world that they have their pirate problem under control, and in recent weeks, there have been many reports of pirates killed and captured in raids. Despite these reports, the Lagos newspaper, Vanguard, is suggesting that all these assurances are simply politicking to comfort the business sector. Some of the pirate attacks in Nigeria's Bonny Channel have been attributed to the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND).

According to a statement from the official address of MEND, signed by Gbomo Jomo, MEND's "freelance fighters" carried out the attack.In another response to THIS DAY inquiries, MEND said it was true that it has acquired sophisticated weapons with which it hopes to battle the Nigerian State to a standstill and promised to hit only military targets.

A Russian-British Tugboat, the Switser-Korsakov is being held by pirates in Mogadishu with its entire crew. Many are worried about the state of the crew:

The situation is even more complicated as the age of the tugboat’s captain is 70 years, chief engineer – 67 that may negatively affects their health in case of long captivity.

Many questions surround the ship's capture, including, what will the Russian Federation do to help?

Meteorologists are concerned about pirates stealing high-tech and highly important Tsunami Warning Buoys near Indonesia. They have been working with the Indonesian Government to increase patrols in the area. If the buoys are stolen then millions are at risk, early warning being humans' only defense against Tsunamis.

The Cougar Ace, a deep sea cargo transport capsized off Alaska and was the subject of rescue attempts documented in Wired. The story is great, and so are the images.