The Lloyd’s List Podcast: Where have all the pirates gone?

Shipping’s persistent piracy problem has all but disappeared off the radar of late. Attacks are still happening of course, but according to the International Maritime Bureau’s latest annual report maritime piracy and armed robbery attacks have reached their lowest recorded levels in 30 years. Last year there were five attempted hijacks of ships recorded, only two of them were successful and only one of them saw pirates fire weapons. Compare that to the relative recent heyday of the Somali piracy scourge where hijacks attempts were happening daily and in 2011 alone the 237 attacks cost the industry $8.3bn in ransom and insurance costs – it seems the piracy risk has subsided. So, have the pirates hung up their Kalshnikovs for good? Well, piracy in the Gulf of Guinea, the epicentre of today’s most significant security hotspot, has clearly been on a downward trend in the past few years, but illegal oil bunkering and pipeline vandalism is at an all-time high. And while the hijack business model may have been broken, armed robbery against ships, particularly in domestic waters, is also not going away. So, this week on the podcast we are looking at what the recent lull in piracy activity means for maritime security and whether it really has disappeared. We look at the regulatory crackdowns and also explore whether the current lull in piracy is really just a rebranding statistics and rampant underreporting. Feature expert insights from • Cyrus Mody, the deputy director of the International Maritime Bureau • Martin Kelly, Lead Intelligence Analyst at EOS Risk Group • Jakob Larsen, Head of Maritime security, BIMCO • Stephen Askins, Partner at Tatham & Co