Tag: maritime piracy

Found four days after it was attacked by pirates at the coast of Benin The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) reported yesterday that a Filipino seafarer was found dead aboard a Marshall Island-flagged ship, four days after it was attacked by pirates at the coast of Benin.The DFA said Filipino seaman Christopher Cortez Ceprado was found dead on May 11 after his vessel, chemical tanker MT Sea King, was seized by pirates on May 7. The vessel is manned by a crew of 17 Filipinos.The pirates ransacked the vessels equipment, as well as the personal belongings of the crew onboard.Ceprados remains was brought to the mortuary in Cotonou for autopsy.The Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs (DFA-OUMWA) is in close coordination with the local manning agency on the repatriation of Ceprado here.It has also instructed the Philippine Embassy in Abuja to coordinate with authorities on the investigation of the incident.Source: PhilSTAR

No one on the tanker was injured The crew of the USS "Bulkley" came to the aid of a German tanker, Artemis Glory, which was attacked by pirates in the Gulf of Oman.The incident occurred on Monday while the ship was heading from Saudi Arabia to China. The distress signal was intercepted by the Americans who arrivced on the scene.A helicopter was dispatched from the destroyer which then killed all of the pirates. No one on the tanker was injured.Since early this year Somali pirates have made more than a hundred attacks. Currently they are holding nearly 500 people captive and 50 ships.Source: Voice of Russia

Piracy high on the Agenda Piracy and armed robbery against ships off the coast of Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden and the wider Indian Ocean will be high on the agenda when IMO's Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) meets at the Organization's London Headquarters for its 89th session from 11 to 20 May 2011.The busy agenda also includes adoption of amendments, concerning lifeboat release hooks, to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) and work related to the implementation of the Torremolinos Protocol on fishing vessel safety, as well as goal-based standards for vessel construction and the long-range identification and tracking of ships. The MSC will also consider the approval of a number of draft resolutions for submission to the IMO Assembly, to be held in late 2011.Piracy and armed robbery against ships to be discussedThe MSC is expected to discuss the development of guidance on the employment of private, armed security service providers on board ships; measures to improve compliance with the Best Management Practices to Deter Piracy off the Coast of Somalia and in the Arabian Sea area; and proposed guidelines to assist in the collection of evidence after a hijack.The number of ...

Action to protect seafarers from piracy and to stop the pirates The Save Our Seafarers Campaign has so far generated 9,967 responses from around the world calling on governments to take action to protect seafarers from piracy and to stop the pirates.Responses from India currently lead the way, in the wake of the continued captivity of seven Indian seafarers from the Asphalt Venture following a ransom payment to Somali pirates.Supporters from the UK, USA, Denmark and Philippines have also sent strong responses to their governments calling for action.Source: Save Our Seafarers

Questions to Theme day launch Panel

Marine insurers should stop charging a war risk premium, already many insurance costs India wants marine insurers to stop charging a war risk premium on cargo ships plying the Indian Ocean that increases freight costs, and is lobbying the global maritime regulator for help in the matter.A joint war committee comprising underwriters from the Lloyds Market Association and International Underwriting Association on 8 January expanded large parts of northern Indian Ocean as a conflict zone, the eastern border of which extends to the west coast of India.This has raised insurance costs of cargo reaching or going out of the countrys western ports.Indias exporters and importers will also have to bear higher costs for transporting goods because of restricted availability of ships as many fleet owners may avoid using this route instead of paying higher premium, according to T.V. Shanbhag, group adviser to Indias biggest ship-broking firm, Mumbai-based Transocean Shipping Agency Pvt LtdConsidering that there have been no (pirate) attacks reported for the last two months within 500 nautical miles (926km) from the Indian coast, after the Indian Navy has taken remedial measures, it is imperative that the eastern boundary of the war zone be reduced to an appropriate longitude, M.M. ...

Patrol with the EU force

The game suggests ways of combating piracy off Somalia coast This month, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) is rolling out its first ever internet wargame intended to tap the minds of online gamers in order to find solutions to real-world problems facing the Navy.Scheduled to run for three weeks, the MMOWGL the Massive Multiplayer Online Wargame Leveraging the Internet exercise will recruit more than 1,000 online players to suggest ways of combating piracy off the coast of Somalia.MMOWGLI is an online game designed to find and collectively grow breakthrough ideas to some of the Navys most complex problemsthose 21st-century threats that demand new forms of collaboration and truly outlying ideas, said Dr. Larry Schuette, ONRs director of Innovation, whose office is managing the project.The piracy scenario was chosen as a means to demonstrate the platform, but MMOWGLI itself can be applied to any scenario, officials said.ONR intends to produce varying results from a diverse group of players drawn from the ranks of academia, defense, and government and nongovernment organizations. The plan is for MMOWGLI to identify solutions to difficult challenges by tapping into the intellectual capital of a broader community.We hope MMOWGLI will help us to understand what happens ...

Somali pirate story