Pirates take another Brit Yacht......

[santeana]

As has been said by many, the W Indian Ocean is a huge area and almost impossible to police with the modest resources available. I'm no expert and no doubt will be swiftly corrected, but is it not possible to make effective use of satelite observation to spot and track craft without having to almost rely on good luck to be in the right place at the right time? Even using Google Earth the tracks of ships are quite clear to see from a relatively high altitude. Is there not a 'real time' technology from which the behaviour of vessels can be monitored?

 

[Woodlouse]

Why not AIS?
Should help screen Sheep from Goats.

If a potential 'mothership' is not transmitting, then it can be deemed as suspicious & given closer scrutiny. Bit like IFF. Any vessel likely to be taken by pirates, could also disable their own AIS, alerting any friendly nearby vessels covertly.

I think you'll find in the Indian Ocean there are pirate mother ships not transmitting, warships not transmitting and merchant ships not transmitting. Why make it easy for the Pirates by broadcasting the name, type, speed, course and any other detail they want to know about the vessel. I know if I was in those waters I'd have my AIS turned off.

 

[Rob_Melotti]

Original story not confirmed

Going back to the top of the post... new hijacking event appears to have been a 'spurious report'. Will try to find out more but why flog a dead horse?

 

[whipper_snapper]

I think you'll find in the Indian Ocean there are pirate mother ships not transmitting, warships not transmitting and merchant ships not transmitting. Why make it easy for the Pirates by broadcasting the name, type, speed, course and any other detail they want to know about the vessel. I know if I was in those waters I'd have my AIS turned off.

Ha!


I can assure you that nobody, and I mean absolutely nobody, transmits an AIS signal in this area whether in open water or in harbour. It would be insane to do so.

 

[Brian blue bear]

Not with that post, Bri. I was providing some background and pointing out the fact that since Somali fishermen routinely arm to warn people off foregigners fishing in their territorial waters, spotting pirates was a tad more complex than some would think.

But hey ho.

Please don't take It personal was mearly trying to stimulate a reaction from a humanitarian viewpoint, sort of Bono type, I really did stimulate Rambo, No offence Puddock, if you read this.. as from Previous Posts I'd have attacked them as well. the only way I differ from Most Is I would pay the ransom because the Chandlers Lives are worth more than an MP's Expenses, It really belittles people I look up to Because their conquests..Pick our fights,

On reflection Should have added the link to my own Post... I'll get the hang of this soon...

 

[V1701]

Going back to the top of the post... new hijacking event appears to have been a 'spurious report'. Will try to find out more but why flog a dead horse?

Yes, thankyou there doesn't seem to be any reports of a new event. It's good to see people getting passionate about things though, instead of just not being a***d...

Surely the commercial boys are big enough to look after themselves, can employ private security or something, but as a sailor I personally would like to say to anyone who wanted to kidnap me that neither me nor my family have money & my govt won't even speak to you, let alone give you money, why kidnap me? Now precedents have been set we can't do that. Not sure if there is now any way that the pirates can be made to understand that taking small sailing vessels is not worth it cos there's no money in it...

David.

 

[Talbot]

Absolute twaddle. Most African countries are ruled by those who are most friendly (ie, corrupt) to the multinationals who extract metals, agricultural produce etc. Then only reason Somalia's going down the pan is there's nothing any Western co can make huge profits out of

Twaddle yourself!

Try research on the subject before hitting the keys to avoid writing such unmitigated tosh.

Somalia not only has a fair amount of minerals (gold etc and other underground resources) which have all been shut down because the people working them were unable to get enough security. There is also a significant chance of oil in the Ogaden region in Ethiopia, and there may well be deposits that go into Somalia.

This region is being taken over by Chinese money who are buying up the concessions. Most of these concessions were owned by western countries who defaulted due to the security. China solves the security issue by installing extremely well trained "Private Security" who have changed their military uniforms to another colour for the task! (see Sudan)

 

[Deleted member 36384]

Don't be stupid. There's no oil in Somalia, so noone in the West is interested.......

There is oil in Somalia - Its not a Saudi for sure, but its there in potentially commercial volumes, it has been discovered and there are development plans for some discoveries. There is probably more as well.

No infrastructure, no likely stable government, there are easier areas in the world to develop. There are quite a few interested parties in Somalian oil / gas plays.

 

[dratsea]

I can second that, might even have been offered fish by the same AK-47 toting fisherman as RV. RV which boat you? John