According to a recent International Maritime Bureau report, so far this year shipping companies have paid out approximately $110 million US dollars in ransom money to pirates. That is so far a whopping 37% increase over this time last year, even though there have been fewer successful attacks! It's due to the basic economic principle of supply and demand. The crews of cargo vessels are becoming increasingly more adept at fighting off pirates using basic maneuvering tactics, water canons, barbed wire, and other anti-pirate tactics. The British and US governments have also recently started backing the hiring of armed security guards for cargo ships and other vessels in pirate infested waters. And NATO and other naval patrols in the areas have also curbed some hijacking attempts. With the pirates “supply” of their only “commodity” drying up and becoming harder to acquire, they have raised the amount of ransoms accordingly, and are getting 3 or 4 times the ransoms they were asking for before. The Somali pirate stock market however seems to be fully functional and unaffected by the ups and downs of the supply chain!

Things seem to be picking up again in the Indian Ocean, and the South China Sea. On Thursday, a tanker carrying oil and gas was hijacked in the Straits of Singapore. On Firday, Malaysia authorities located the vessel, and with help from Indonesia intercepted and recovered the vessel and her crew unharmed. The 19 suspected pirates however managed to escape. Malaysia authorities also rescued a barge on Thursday that had been hijacked on Wednesday. This area had been relatively free of pirate activity recently, but that seems to be changing again.

In other developments, Britain has now authorized all British flagged vessels to be licensed to hire armed security guards. No ship carrying armed security has yet been hijacked, the British government claims. While that is true to my knowledge, it does raise some interesting questions. I'm sure it won't be long before one of these armed guards kills a pirate in self defense, which will have all the hand-wringers at the U.N. up in arms about the pirates human rights!

The crew of a Taiwanese fishing vessel believed hijacked by pirates on Friday, have successfully re-taken their vessel and left their pirate hijackers adrift in the sea off East Africa. The exact location is unknown at this time, but the vessel was just off the coast of the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. The 290-tonne Chin Yi Wen with a crew of 28 was last heard from on Friday and they were heading toward the Somali coast. This story grabbed my attention for two reasons, it's the first time I am aware of that a hijacked fishing vessel has been recaptured by her crew. If the Chin Yi Wen was actually heading toward the Somali coast, it lends a bit of credence to the Somali pirates claims that foreign fishing vessels are fishing in Somali waters. One of the claims the Somali pirates have been using in an attempt to justify their turning to piracy. At the moment there are not a whole lot of details on this one, but I am very curious to hear the full story, and I will post an update when I find out more.

This one is definitely a first for me since I have been covering real pirates news! On Tuesday, October 11, British and U.S. forces stormed an Italian cargo ship that had been taken over by pirates after receiving a message in a bottle tossed out a porthole by the crew. The combined forces  freed all 23 crew members and took all 11 pirates in to custody. The crew locked themselves in a secure armored location aboard ship on Monday after the pirates had boarded, safe from the pirates threats, the crew was still able to navigate the ship from their secure location. They tossed out a note letting anyone who picked it up know that they were safe and there was no way the pirates could get to them. That was all the incentive the British and U.S. forces need to storm the ship. Sounds like a T.V. movie of the week to me!