Real Pirates! Weekly Piracy Report!

[News Crew]

There was a little Somali pirate activity this week, but still not a whole lot, the weather and the international warships are keeping a tight lid on things. Indian and French navies jointly rescued a 14-member Indian crew on board an Indian vessel hijacked by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden Wednesday, said the Press Trust of India quoting Navy sources Thursday. Also a German ship and its crew held for three months by Somali pirates have been released after pirates were paid a ransom of USD 1.8 million. and finally, another Russian task force is on it's way to the area and should be there by the end of July. On July 15'th, the ICC released a report stating that piracey had doubled in the first six months of 2009 as opposed to last year. Here is an excerpt from that report:  Piracy doubles in first six months of 2009 Wednesday, 15 July 2009  Kuala Lumpur, 15 July 2009 ? Piracy attacks around the world more than doubled to 240 from 114 during the first six months of the year compared with the same period in 2008, the ICC International Maritime Bureau?s Piracy Reporting Centre (IMB) said today.  ?As in the last quarterly report, the rise in overall numbers is due almost entirely to increased Somali pirate activity off the Gulf of Aden and east coast of Somalia, with 86 and 44 incidents reported respectively,? the report said.  The year?s second quarter saw 136 reports of piracy compared with 104 in the first three months of 2009, an increase of almost a third.  A total of 78 vessels were boarded worldwide, 75 vessels fired upon and 31 vessels hijacked with some 561 crew taken hostage, 19 injured, seven kidnapped, six killed and eight missing. The attackers were heavily armed with guns and knives in the majority of incidents. ?Violence against crew members continues to increase,? the report concluded.  Nevertheless, the presence of navies in the Gulf of Aden from several countries have made it difficult for pirates to hijack vessels and has led them to seek new areas of operation such as the southern Red Sea and the east coast of Oman, where Somali pirates are believed to be responsible for a spate of recent attacks.  The report said that attacks off the eastern coast of Somalia had decreased in recent months after peaking in March and April, with no attacks reported in June. But the Piracy Reporting Centre attributed the decline to heavy weather associated with the monsoons that are expected to continue into August. The centre said vigilance should nevertheless remain high during this period.  You can read the full report on the ICC's web page HERE! (http://www.icc-ccs.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=362iracy-doubles-in-first-six-months-of-2009&catid=60:news&Itemid=51) Read on for the rest of this weeks Weekly Pirate Report!  Read more... (http://piratesahoy.net/history/real-pirates/409-real-pirates-weekly-piracy-report.html) View the full article