SafetyNET service helps keep pirates at bay


17-06-2008 - A maritime safety service from Inmarsat is playing a vital role in protecting vessels from the modern-day scourge of piracy.

Far from being a menace of the past, pirates are launching regular attacks in the world's most dangerous seas - targeting cargo ships, luxury yachts and cruise liners.

Rocket-propelled grenades Armed with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, they often operate from mother ships hundreds of miles from the shore.

For mariners, alerts issued by the International Maritime Bureau's (IMB) Piracy Reporting Centre (PRC) via the Inmarsat C SafetyNET service offer the best chance of keeping out of the pirates' reach.

The centre, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, receives reports from ships of suspicious or unexplained craft movements, as well as actual boardings, and issues alerts to other ships and law enforcement agencies in the area.

Vital role
IMB director Capt Pottengal Mukundan said: "Inmarsat plays a vital role in the anti-piracy response. The IMB Piracy Reporting Centre broadcasts a piracy situation report many times a week to ships in all world hotspots through Inmarsat C's SafetyNET system.

"These broadcasts provide ship masters with essential intelligence on the frequency and type of the latest attacks as they pass through these areas."

As well as warning mariners of possible dangers, the reports are also used by law enforcement agencies to chart pirates' positions.

Essential product
Brian Mullan, head of maritime safety services for Inmarsat, said: "SafetyNET, which was introduced over 10 years ago, is an essential product for the protection of vessels from pirates.

"Initially the PRC broadcasts were made in the Pacific and Indian ocean regions because piracy incidents were largely confined to the South China Sea and Malacca Straits.

"But when attacks began to increase along the West African coast, the PRC extended the broadcasts into the Atlantic Ocean region via the Inmarsat Land Earth Station in Burum, so today they cover the three ocean regions and help protect vessels all over the world."

Attacks eradicated
The highlighting of incidents by PRC has also seen a marked increase in international co-operation in the battle to curb piracy, with patrols set up by a number of countries seeing attacks in South-east Asia virtually eradicated last year.

But elsewhere piracy is still rife. In the first three months of 2008, there were 49 attacks reported to the PRC - a 20 per cent increase on the same period last year.

A total of 36 vessels were boarded and one vessel hijacked. Seven crew members were taken hostage, six kidnapped, three were killed and one is missing, presumed dead.

In the majority of incidents, the attackers were heavily armed with guns or knives.

Nigeria hotspot
Nigeria ranks as the current number one hotspot, with many of the attacks concentrated off Lagos.

Waters around Somalia are also notorious for vessel hijackings and hostage-taking for ransom. In February 2008, a new icebreaker tug, the Svitzer Korsakov, was boarded in the Gulf of Aden as it made its way from Europe to Russia, and held for 47 days before a ransom was paid.

Capt Mukundan commented: "Somalia is a country without an effective government and no national law enforcement. The eastern seaboard is in the hands of many militia groups, some of whom actively support the pirate gangs.

Rocket launchers "The attacks sometimes take place hundreds of miles off the Somali coast, and involve mother ships and attack craft, automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenade launchers."

The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) is behind a draft resolution being considered by the United Nations Security Council to allow states to enter Somali waters in order to fight piracy.

Inmarsat Plc, press release