* Pirates able to conceal movements with smaller craft
* They had been using captured vessels as ‘motherships’
* Tougher naval action forcing gangs to adapt
By Jonathan Saul
LONDON, April 27 (Reuters) – Somali pirates are switching
back to using smaller cargo and fishing boats as motherships,
hoping to evade detection as maritime security is stepped up to
foil their attacks on merchant vessels, industry and navy
sources say.
With the prospect of ransoms worth tens of millions of
dollars, Somali pirates continue to threaten vital shipping
lanes in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean. Over 20 years of war
and famine have worsened prospects for Somalis, adding to the
appeal for many young men of crime on the high seas.
Armed gangs had started using large merchant vessels –
including tankers – that they had seized as motherships, forcing
crews by gunpoint to do their bidding. The tactic, employed
agressively in 2011, enabled them to operate further out at sea.
But vigorous action by navies, including pre-emptive
strikes, have cut attacks, forcing pirates to adapt their model.
“We are seeing a change in tactics,” said Joe Angelo,
managing director with INTERTANKO, an association whose members
own the majority of the world’s oil tanker fleet. “They are now
hijacking smaller dhows and they are using them as motherships
which is making them less suspicious.”
Traditional dhows, used by fishermen and general merchants
in the region, were first deployed by Somali pirates before they
started using larger captured vessels.
The larger vessels enabled gangs to operate for longer
periods at sea with more supplies and in harsher weather
conditions, as well giving them more flexibility when launching
their high speed attack craft known as skiffs.
“The tactic of using larger commercial vessels as
motherships has died down recently as dhows are more effective;
they are essentially camouflaged amongst the huge numbers of
genuine fishing boats and dhows carrying cargo locally off the
Horn of Africa,” said Rory Lamrock, an intelligence analyst with
security firm AKE.
“Weapons and ladders can be easily jettisoned overboard
whenever naval forces approach, making it difficult for navies
to disrupt. When a larger vessel gets hijacked for use as a
mothership, it is usually well reported and naval forces and
commercial ships in the area will be on the lookout.”
Data this week from the International Maritime Bureau (IMB)
watchdog showed attacks involving Somali pirates in the first
quarter of this year had slid to 43, from 97 incidents in the
same period last year.
The deployment of private armed security guards and greater
use of pirate deterrents such as razor wire and heightened
monitoring watches when entering danger areas by crews on board
also helped curb Somali attacks.
“While the number of 2012 incidents and hijackings are less
… it is unlikely that the threat of Somali piracy will
diminish in the short to medium term unless further actions are
taken,” the IMB said.
A study published in February by U.S. non-governmental
organisation One Earth Future Foundation showed Somali piracy
cost the world economy some $7 billion last year. The total paid
in ransoms reached $160 million, with an average ransom for a
ship rising to $5 million, from around $4 million in 2010.
LONE TARGETS
Ship industry officials said pirates were attempting more
diverse attacks and were pushing further into the northern Gulf
of Oman to prey on areas not so heavily patrolled.
“I personally believe what is going on are random acts where
they can be successful,” said INTERTANKO’s Angelo.
AKE’s Lamrock said over the past six months there had been
five incidents in the northern Gulf of Oman, three of which were
further north than the port of Fujairah in the United Arab
Emirates, towards the vital Strait of Hormuz oil choke point.
“It seems more likely that pirates will focus on
opportunistically targeting vessels transiting through the
Gulf,” Lamrock said.
Despite successful efforts to quell attacks and disrupt
pirate camps, international naval forces have limited resources
to patrol vast distances.
“We are seeing pirates using dhows as motherships – we are
monitoring that. They are having to constantly adapt their
procedures,” said Lt Cdr Jacqueline Sherriff, spokeswoman with
the European Union’s counter piracy force.
“The Indian Ocean is vast. We are focusing our efforts on
the areas that they have been in the past and we are having
success.”
Sherriff said navies faced the challenge of monitoring large
amounts of legitimate dhow traffic passing through the region.
“There are hundreds of them going about their legal trade
and we have to be very careful with our intelligence who we
target.”
(Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
