Weekly Piracy Assessment — Reporting period: 10–16 May 2012

Overview
Dur­ing the report­ing peri­od of 10 May to 16 May 2012 there has been an increase in pirate attacks in the High Risk Area (HRA) with two ves­sels attacked, one ves­sel pirat­ed and three dis­rup­tions. Pirate Attack Group (PAG) activ­i­ty is still expect­ed to con­tin­ue. Spe­cif­ic areas of sus­pect­ed and known PAG loca­tions can be found on our PAG map: http://www.shipping.nato.int/operations/OS/Pages/PAGmap.aspx When con­tact­ing UKMTO and the NSC to pro­vide infor­ma­tion on sus­pi­cious activ­i­ty, please pro­vide as much detail as pos­si­ble, includ­ing pho­tos if avail­able. Also, please pro­vide the most accu­rate report of the inci­dent as pos­si­ble in order to assist mil­i­tary assets to respond most effectively. 

It has been observed recent­ly that some Mas­ters are choos­ing to phone their CSO first in the event of a pira­cy incident. 

One of the fun­da­men­tal require­ments of BMP4 states that UKMTO is the pri­ma­ry point of con­tact for mer­chant ves­sels dur­ing pira­cy inci­dents in the High Risk Area which should avoid unnec­es­sary delay and pos­si­ble inac­cu­rate or incom­plete infor­ma­tion reach­ing mil­i­tary commanders. 

CSOs should ensure their ships’ secu­ri­ty plan rein­forces the BMP4 rec­om­men­da­tion that UKMTO should be tele­phoned on +971 50 55 23215 in the event of any pira­cy activ­i­ty. UKMTO will then make every effort to con­tact the CSO as a mat­ter of pri­or­i­ty with any infor­ma­tion received, whilst ensur­ing the rel­e­vant infor­ma­tion reach­es the mil­i­tary com­man­ders with the min­i­mum of delay. 

Your sup­port in this mat­ter is most appreciated. 

South­ern Red Sea (SRS)/Bab Al Man­deb (BAM) / Gulf of Aden (GOA)/Internationally Rec­om­mend­ed Tran­sit Cor­ri­dor (IRTC)

There have been no sig­nif­i­cant changes over the past week. Mas­ters are advised that fish­ing activ­i­ty is expect­ed to con­tin­ue and like­ly to increase in this area over the next few months. 

Ara­bi­an Sea (AS)/Greater Soma­li Basin (SB)/Gulf of Oman (GOO)/Mozambique Chan­nel (MC)

On 12 May 2012 naval forces from Euro­pean Union (EU) in the Soma­li Basin con­duct­ed a suc­cess­ful dis­rup­tion on a land based pirate camp. 

On 11 May 2012, NATO and Counter Pira­cy forces from EU suc­cess­ful­ly dis­rupt­ed 2 PAGs. The first, in the North­ern SB was made up of a sin­gle dhow tow­ing 2 Skiffs. The sec­ond in the South­ern AS was made up of a sin­gle dhow. 

On 10 May 2012, a mer­chant ves­sel was pirat­ed (Alert 040/12) by two skiffs in posi­tion 15 58N 06103E in the South AS. The ship is now under pirate con­trol and is anchored off the Soma­li coast. Also a mer­chant ves­sel was attacked (Alert 041/12) by a skiff in posi­tion 14 18N 058 27E approx­i­mate­ly 150nm South West from the pirat­ed ves­sel on the same day. 

On 09 May 2012, a mer­chant ves­sel was attacked (Alert 039/12) by 2 white skiffs in posi­tion 10 40N 060 04E approx­i­mate­ly 360nm South East of Soco­tra Island. A moth­er­ship and a total of 8 skiffs were report­ed at the same location. 

Counter Pira­cy Guid­ance Update

Suc­cess­ful dis­rup­tions by naval forces over the past few months, in con­junc­tion with mas­ters’ adher­ence and imple­men­ta­tion of BMP4, have sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduced the pirates’ abil­i­ty to cap­ture ves­sels. Soma­li pirates have shown the abil­i­ty to act far off the coast of Soma­lia and in dark­ness. Soma­li pirates in search of ves­sels of oppor­tu­ni­ty, such as those who are not read­i­ly employ­ing BMP4 rec­om­mend­ed Ship Pro­tec­tion mea­sures. Both dhows and whalers are being used as moth­er­ships, in the north­ern SB and AS the pre­ferred moth­er­ships are local dhows, where­as in the south­ern SB, 8‑metre whalers are preferred. 

Details of all alerts can be found on NSC Alert details web­page: http://www.shipping.nato.int/Pages/AllAlerts.aspx

Ear­ly reg­is­tra­tion with MSCHOA before enter­ing the HRA and reg­u­lar report­ing to UKMTO are high­ly rec­om­mend­ed, as per Sec­tion 5 of BMP4. Pru­dent and time­ly imple­men­ta­tion of all rec­om­mend­ed actions and ship hard­en­ing mea­sures in BMP4 can make the impor­tant dif­fer­ence of being approached, attacked, or pirat­ed. NSC would like to remind mas­ters that BMP4 high­ly rec­om­mends main­tain­ing max­i­mum ves­sel speed when tran­sit­ing the High Risk Area (HRA) to pre­vent pirate boardings. 

Soma­li pirates oper­at­ing in this area are look­ing to pirate mer­chant ships, yet past activ­i­ty has shown that pirates will attack both large and small yachts pass­ing their way. Larg­er yachts with more peo­ple onboard or a group of yachts could be seen as a valu­able and easy tar­get for the pirates. For more infor­ma­tion, please read the Let your Yacht take the fer­ry doc­u­ment locat­ed in the “New on the Web Page” sec­tion on the NSC web­site main page. 

Mas­ters are remind­ed that a large num­ber of fish­ing ves­sels oper­ate in the South­ern Red Sea (SRS), Bab al-Man­deb (BAM) and up to 50 nm off the west coast of India. Fish­ing ves­sels may approach a mer­chant ship in order to max­imise fish­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties or to safe­guard fish­ing nets. Fish­ing off India is gen­er­al­ly car­ried out by mech­a­nized boats and sin­gle hull boats with out­board motor car­ry­ing 4–5 crew using long lines. Mas­ters are request­ed to ensure they dis­tin­guish between fish­ing ves­sels and poten­tial pirates when able; fish­er­men may car­ry small arms. 

If any inci­dent occurs, Mas­ters are request­ed to report imme­di­ate­ly to UKMTO via tele­phone and pro­vide the details of the inci­dent. This will ensure the infor­ma­tion is pro­vid­ed to oth­er ships in the area for their aware­ness and vig­i­lance. If Mas­ters are safe­ly able to take pic­tures and/or video of the sus­pi­cious activ­i­ty, please pro­vide these via email to UKMTO (ukmto@eim.ae), the NATO Ship­ping Cen­tre (info@shipping.nato.int) and MSCHOA (postmaster@mschoa.org).

Source:
Allied Com­mand Oper­a­tions
NATO 

Team GlobDef

Seit 2001 ist GlobalDefence.net im Internet unterwegs, um mit eigenen Analysen, interessanten Kooperationen und umfassenden Informationen für einen spannenden Überblick der Weltlage zu sorgen. GlobalDefence.net war dabei die erste deutschsprachige Internetseite, die mit dem Schwerpunkt Sicherheitspolitik außerhalb von Hochschulen oder Instituten aufgetreten ist.

Alle Beiträge ansehen von Team GlobDef →