Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Avast!  Today is Talk Like a Pirate Day!  A day where people of all stripes can unleash their inner pirate and express their scurvy selves.  If you need any help, check out www.talklikeapirate.com for great ways to get in that pirate-y mood!  So, in observance of Talk Like a Pirate Day, let us get into character: arrrrrr!  Now, enjoy some pirate-y videos!

Now what? Ninjas?

With all the recent pirate attacks on American ships and even mortar shells being targeted at a congressman's plane, people are up in arms over the issue of piracy. The crew of the Maersk Alabama are asking for the U.S. to do more to combat piracy. According to an article written on MSN.com, pirates collected approximately 18 to 30 million dollars in 2008. Also, pirate attacks are up 11% in 2008, according to the International Maritime Bureau's Piracy Reporting Centre, and we would be willing to bet that much of the increase is due to the worsening global economic situation much in the same way that crime rates increase during poor economic times. This would imply that an overall improvement in the global economy would help to quell some of these pirate attacks. This also would indicate that economic aid in would have a greater effect on the pirate problem than sending patrol boats out.

Since the pirates operate in an estimated 1.4 million square miles off the coast of Somalia, these patrol boats have a vast area to cover. According to the same MSN ariticle, there are approximately 30 warships off of Somalia and that means that each ship must cover approximately 46,000 square miles. However, in March, there were 15 attacks on merchant ships and about 1400 ships passed through the area in that time making the the probability of an attack at 1.07%. While this number might seem low, a 1 in 100 risk of being attacked by pirates is not odds we here would like take.

Now, if these 30 ships were to go to the coast of somalia and patrol the waters near these ports (a delicate task because putting warships off the coast of a sovereign nation tends to be a touchy subject), it would dramatically reduce the amount of area required to cover. A quick look at Google Maps reveals 29 cities which may or may not have a port large enough for a supertanker or merchant ship. This would give about a 1:1 ratio of ships to ports and make the problems more containable.

Pirates: Now available outside the Caribbean!

With the recent events off the coast of Somalia, piracy seems to be back in style. Our classic interpretation of pirates were actually privateers (e.g. William Kidd, Sir Francis Drake and even the Barbary Pirates), who were state sponsored pirates who attacked other nation's shipping. The recent Somali pirate attacks offer a distinct situation because of the political situation in the country. Due to the fact that Somalia does not have a stable government which cannot effectively control its territory, the solving the piracy issue is significantly more complex. And that is not to say that the degree of difficulty is not still very high.

If Somalia were a stable nation with an effective government, applying diplomatic or economic pressure would push them to prosecute the pirates and eliminate the safe havens where the captured vessels are docked. That is not the case today. Regional warlords have significantly more power than the government and are allowing the ships to be docked in "safe" ports due to the extreme profitability of piracy. A necessary condition for eliminating piracy off the coast of Somalia is a stable state. Due to the fractured nature of Somalia, the duration as a failed state and the large number of warlords vying for power, nation building there would be as difficult as Iraq, if not more so. Economic aid and development would lend support to the government and help to stabilize the region. As people have more opportunity, the motivating factor in piracy is less of a draw. This will take time and a temporary solution will have to be implemented in the interim.

Avoiding the area is not an option because of the high amount of shipping that flows through the area. Containing the piracy issue is, at least for now, a more practical solution while efforts like economic development take hold. The current strategy favored by the pirates is to board a ship and take its crew and contents to a port and hold them for ransom. This means that there is a finite number of places where a ship like a supertanker can be docked. Regular patrols and potentially a multinational force (U.N. or otherwise) could oversee these ports and provide security and order. Without a place to hold the ships, the pirates would be forced to either change tactics or find a different revenue source.

Changing tactics is something that would have to be very closely monitored since there are a wide variety of things that could happen which would be devastating to international shipping. As the "safer" alternatives of docking a ship while waiting for the ransom dry up, desperate pirates could take to more reckless alternatives and desperate people can be very creative.