Calming the Raging Seas

The seas off the coast of Somalia are raging these days, but not because of inclement weather. Pirating is becoming a big problem; last week’s standoff between the U.S. Navy and the Somalia pirates made international news, but it wasn’t the beginning of the pirating issues that are running rampant through one of the worlds busiest shipping lanes, and it wasn’t the end either.

Since the hijacking took place of the Maersk Alabama, there have been numerous attacks on shipping vessels. The BBC News stated that attacks have been occurring at night, under the light of the moon, which is how the MV Sea Horse was seized off the coast of Somalia just this week, the tenth hijacking this month.

Some may believe that because the standoff between U.S. Navy officials and the pirates is over with the release of Captain Richard Phillips, that we can breathe a sigh of relief and put this incident behind us. This couldn’t be further from the truth. The fact is, with shipping trades being attacked and taken for ransom, it greatly affects our international trade stance and endangers lives of the crew.  Steps must be taken to combat this problem.

Somalia is also a country that contains a high concentration of terrorist activity. Though the pirates may have the ability and vigor to take over shipping vessels, they lack the power to stand up to terrorist forces, which could lead to demands by the terrorist for a portion of the pirate’s profit. Fred C. Iklé of the Washington Post mentions this concept; “we must consider the bigger picture: Terrorists are far more brutal than pirates and can easily force pirates -- petty thieves in comparison -- to share their ransom money.” In a country without government, the Somalia pirates are able to use the money they take for the return of the ships to purchase expensive items such as cars and homes.

Even though authorization by the UN Security Council allows for force upon the high seas to eliminate Somali pirates, there is still no plan to attack and eliminate the source of the pirating realm. According to the New York Times, pirates in Somalia are holding more than 200 hostages from countries other that the United States. Attacks of course, must abide by international law, as the BBC states, “This convention [international law], in article 105, does permit the seizure of a pirate ship, but article 110 lays down that, in order to establish that a ship is indeed a pirate vessel, the warship - and it may only be a warship - has to send a boat to the suspected ship first and ask for its papers.” So any type of action taken against the pirates must be in compliance with these laws. The merchant ship companies (such as Maersk) do not want to allow weapons on their ships, in fear of the merchant crew being injured or killed if a battle occurs.

It is clear that no matter what action is taken, it must be thought-out and carefully planned. Instead of being forceful with the pirates, perhaps we need to shut them down by eliminating their ability to control and harness shipping vessels. I believe the more they fail at attacking shipping fleets and the more pirates that are captured in the process, the amount of attacks will decrease.  This tactic will however, have to be implemented and planned out with foreign nations, shipping fleet owners and the Navy, all working together to combat this deepening and irrefutable dilemma.

Let’s hope that with a lot of effort and much needed cooperation by foreign countries and shipping fleet corporations, they can work together to help bring our international trade waters into somewhat calm and non-raging seas.