With the maritime industry stretching as far back as it does in human history, it is no wonder that maritime piracy is arguably one of the oldest and most long standing forms of commercial crime in the world. For as long as it profitable and for as long as the rewards will outweigh the risks, piracy – to varying degrees – will continue to be a scourge on the high seas.
Recent years have seen a drastic increase in the incidents involving armed groups of pirates violently overpowering crews and seizing cargo. In some instances, Commercial ships have been successful in evading potential boarding parties and even repelling them. In many instances though, commercial ships have not been so fortunate such as in the case of the M/V Sirius star, hijacked on 17 November 2008 and released with her crew for the sum of $3 million on 9 January 2009. In fact, if one were to look at the year 2009 in retrospect, there were more than 400 incidents of international maritime piracy reported on the high seas, making it a profitable year for pirates and making one shudder to even estimate the combined cost to international shipping.
It stands to reason that should a commercial shipping company – regardless of whether it specialises in passengers or cargo – manage to tip the balance of risk and reward in its own favour, it should not fall victim to an instance of maritime piracy and hence become another statistic. Increasing numbers of merchant vessels are arming themselves in the fight against piracy in order to protect the lives of their crew and the safe transit of their assets. For these such companies, the risk implicated by not doing so is simply not worth it; with pirate crews ransoming back ships, cargo and crew for millions of dollars at a time. One can also gather from specific interviews and intelligence obtained on Somalia’s pirates, that their targets are pre-selected based on what information they can gather pertaining to the value of the cargo in order to secure as large a ransom as possible.
This brings us to a fitting example of crew and asset protection: a leading maritime security company known as HR-MARSEC which conducts precise and specific security assessments for each client based upon the needs of each individual client and its fleet. HR-MARSEC also draws upon the experience ex military and law enforcement personnel from around the world as well as personnel with high profile maritime security experience in the commercial shipping industry. To date, no commercial vessel which currently utilises the services of HR-MARSEC has fallen victim to piracy.
Unfortunately, the year 2009 was a difficult one for commercial shipping with regard to piracy, as mentioned above. The year culminated with the seizure of Greek Tanker M/V Maran Centaurus, hijacked near the Seychelles on 29 November, 2009 along with her 28 crew members. The ransom for the release of the vessel and her crew is estimated to be between $5.5 and $7 million which was paid on 18 January 2010; the highest recorded ransom paid to pirates who have seized a merchant vessel to date. The actual release of the vessel and her crew is pending due to infighting between pirates onboard the vessel and ashore. In light of incidents such as this it is become increasingly more common in the shipping world for commercial shipping companies to ensure that their vessels are not only perceived as hard targets by potential assailants, but are actually armed and protected to ensure that valuable cargo - such as oil and weaponry - does not fall into the hands of pirates as has happened so frequently in the past.
The shipping companies which utilise the services of HR-MARSEC are privilege to the implementation of the latest anti-piracy technology in addition to the previously mentioned consulting and training in counter-piracy. One should also note that HR-MARSEC is prepared to operate in piracy hotspots such as the Gulf of Aden and off the East and West Coasts of Africa in order to ensure the safety of life at sea and the secure transit of assets at sea. The personnel of HR-MARSEC are armed and trained in both lethal and non lethal techniques in deterring piracy with their primary objective being to secure the lives of crew and passengers and then to ensure the safety of assets in transit.
Commercial shipping is now guaranteed an effective and reliable security solution against maritime terrorism and piracy in the form of HR-MARSEC.
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