Blogging on Meds

The LA Times reports that the US Navy is taking on an expanded roll in fighting piracy on the high seas:

“We want the pirates to know there will be consequences if they escalate,” said Rear Adm. Mark Balmert, commander of Expeditionary Strike Group Three and point man for the Navy’s 5th Fleet on piracy in the [Persian Gulf] region.

The consequences are real: In October, the U.S. guided-missile destroyer Porter sank two pirate skiffs after receiving a distress call from a Panamanian-flagged, Japanese-owned cargo ship in international waters in the Indian Ocean.

Fighting piracy on the high seas is an increasingly significant part of Balmert’s overall mission to maintain maritime security in an ever-volatile region.

Although the United States, along with various partners, has long taken on the job of maintaining stability in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Aden, the mission has expanded in the last year to include piracy off Somalia. Since October, the United States, leading a coalition of 20 nations, has kept at least one warship in international waters off Somalia.

U.S. sailors also are on the lookout in the Persian Gulf for pirates who might attack the smaller merchant ships and dhows.

Continue reading the article here.

Since I’m on the subject of piracy I’ll mention a somewhat light-hearted (considering the subject matter) October 2007 National Geographic article on pirates in the Malaca Strait.

Modern lanun [pirates] have no shortage of targets. Each year, according to Lloyd’s of London, some 70,000 merchant vessels carrying a fifth of all seaborne trade and a third of the world’s crude oil shipments transit this critical choke point in the global economy. The strait’s geography makes it nearly unsecurable. It passes between Malaysia and Indonesia, known for thorny relations, further complicating the security picture. Some 250 miles (400 kilometers) wide at its northern mouth, the strait funnels down to about ten miles (16 kilometers) across near its southern end and is dotted with hundreds of uninhabited mangrove islands, offering endless hideouts to all manner of criminals.

Since 2002, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) has recorded 258 pirate attacks in the Malacca Strait and surrounding waters, including more than 200 sailors held hostage and 8 killed. The insurance arm of Lloyd’s classified the strait as a war zone in June 2005. Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia responded by bolstering security in their respective waters, and Lloyd’s suspended the rating in August 2006.

Peter Gwin’s entertaining on-the-ground account of meeting and training with Indonesian pirates features a cast of characters including one “Jhonny Batam” — “a gentleman of opportunity. A ship captain by trade, he had piloted vessels for both legitimate companies and less scrupulous entities. He was said to know every ship in port and every coffee shop deal in Batam.”

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