Weekly Piracy Assessment — Reporting period: 19–25 April 2012

(Updat­ed: 25 April 2012)
Overview
Dur­ing the report­ing peri­od of 19 to 25 April 12 there was one pirat­ed dhow, one released ves­sel and one sus­pi­cious activ­i­ty in the High Risk Area (HRA). This report­ing peri­od has seen a decrease in the num­ber of inci­dents in the High Risk Area (HRA). 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 here: http://www.shipping.nato.int/operations/OS/Pages/PAGmap.aspx South­ern Red Sea (SRS)/Bab Al Man­deb (BAM) / Gulf of Aden (GOA)/Internationally Rec­om­mend­ed Tran­sit Cor­ri­dor (IRTC)

On 21 Apr 12, a fish­ing ves­sel and two asso­ci­at­ed skiffs were pirat­ed approx­i­mate­ly 17nm South of Ras Far­tak, 15 20N 05 212E (Alert 035/12). The fish­ing ves­sel is described as hav­ing a brown hull with a dark blue stripe just beneath a white guard rail and a light brown upper struc­ture. The fish­ing ves­sel is approx­i­mate­ly 20m in length and is tow­ing at least one skiff. 

Mas­ters are advised that fish­ing activ­i­ty is still expect­ed to con­tin­ue in this area. When con­tact­ing UKMTO and the NSC to pro­vide infor­ma­tion on sus­pi­cious activ­i­ty, please pro­vide as much detail as possible. 

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

On 24 April 12, a mer­chant ves­sel report­ed 4 sus­pi­cious skiffs (Alert 036/12) approach­ing her posi­tion in the Cen­tral Soma­li Basin at posi­tion 04 49 N 054 47 E. The sus­pect­ed PAG sur­round­ed the vessel.

On 23 April 12, after nego­ti­a­tion with pirates, MV ENRICO IEVOLI was released and is now back under the owner’s con­trol. All crew and the ves­sel are now safe. Ves­sel is en route to a safe port. MV ENRICO IEVOLI was pirat­ed on the 27 Decem­ber 2011 in the Ara­bi­an Sea. 

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. As demon­strat­ed with Alert 036/12 on 24 Apr 12, Soma­li pirates have shown the abil­i­ty to act far off the coast of Soma­lia. NSC 035/12, from 21 April 12, also illus­trates that Soma­li pirates are posi­tion­ing them­selves close to the traf­fic lanes in search of ves­sels of oppor­tu­ni­ty, such as those who are not read­i­ly employ­ing BMP4 rec­om­mend­ed Ship Pro­tec­tion mea­sures; a reminder that pira­cy can occur at any time. In the north­ern SB and AS the pre­ferred moth­er­ships are local dhows, where­as in the south­ern SB, 8‑metre whalers are pre­ferred as motherships. 

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. 

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