Soccer Dad

The problem of and possible solutions to piracy

We have another three months until National Talk like a Pirate day, Mateys, but they are in the news.

Al Jazeera profiles the Pirate Kings of Puntland.

The piracy industry is controlled by criminal gangs who recruit local youths and take the lion's share of the profits. They are also well-armed with weapons ranging from Kalashnikovs to rocket launchers.

And every pirate cell, says Juqraafi, has clear policies and guidelines for everything it does - including sharing the ransom.

"The financier is usually a businessman who sponsors the pirates and gets 30 per cent of the ransom. The pirates get 50 per cent," he explains.

"The remaining 20 per cent is given to the poor and all those who, in one way or another, help the pirates on shore and this includes local government officials who expect bribes from every successful venture."

I suppose that that the element of giving loot to the poor as a rationalization. The article also claims that the pirates started out defending the waters off Somalia from illicit fishing.

However if piracy is a business, so too is anti-piracy.

But what's the best approach to fighting pirates? Veronique de Rugy writes:

If possible, it would be productive to find ways to privatize those pirate-infested seas. There are obvious difficulties, though not insurmountable ones, in the Somali case, where there's no central government capable of conducting an auction. The alternative, a bottom-up homesteading approach, might end up granting the waters to the pirates themselves, but the best way to pacify the pirates may be to allow them formal ownership rights. In the long run, privately controlled waters would generate new solutions to the piracy problems. Former pirates, for example, could serve as escorts to commercial ships, not unlike the way retired hackers often emerge as computer security consultants.

In truth, based on the Al Jazeera article, the pirates already view themselves somewhat as protectors of their territorial waters, so I don't know that they would necessarily take a benevolent re-assignment. Furthermore, could they be trusted?

For those less inclined to trust pirates to reform, the Israeli government has just opened an anti-piracy center, focusing on threats nearer to Israel. (h/t Jerusalem Checkpoint)

Israel opened on Sunday a naval center for the search and rescue of ships attacked by pirates and other hostile groups at sea.

The Rescue Coordination Center is a division of the Shipping and Ports Authority; its opening came amid increased awareness of maritime threats, following a spate of attacks by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean.

"The center will give an initial response and aid to maritime incidents, including search and rescue activities for ships that have encountered difficulties at sea, as well as incidents related to protecting the environment against pollution," said Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz (Likud).

Other countries operate similar centers. No doubt as the problem becomes more acute, more solutions will be developed.