With the increasing threat of piracy assaults on world shipping lanes, ship owners and shipping companies are under pressure to secure protection for their personnel and assets. While the onus has been placed on governments to provide this protection, the shear size of the problem, along with fiscal constraints, has left a gap in the level of protection that can be offered by governments to shipping companies. This has prompted many shipping companies to turn to commercial protection providers for their protective needs.

MUSE PROFESSIONAL GROUP/M.A.P.S has been providing protective solutions to shipping companies for over three years, and in that time it has built up a reputation for innovative solutions to the ever growing problem of piracy and terrorism at sea.MUSE PROFESSIONAL GROUP/M.A.P.S intends to expand upon this excellent reputation by offering a broader level of service to its clients. It is therefore no coincidence that MUSE PROFESSIONAL GROUP/M.A.P.S has decided to launch its the first online Anti-Piracy Training Program for seafarers.

The MUSE PROFESSIONAL GROUP/M.A.P.S online training program has been developed in order to best prepare seafarers for difficult transits through pirate infected waters. The Anti-Piracy Training Program contains six modules, each of which is designed to raise the awareness of the seafarer. These modules include Planning, Trends & Tactics, Best Management Practices and Emotional & Physical Preparedness. The program also gives an overview of piracy and why it has become such a major issue for shipping companies.

The MUSE PROFESSIONAL GROUP/M.A.P.S Anti-Piracy Training Program is seen as a key element in the struggle against Pirate Action Groups. As a key element in the struggle against piracy, the program offers a cost effective method of preparing ship owners and their personnel for hazardous transits through the Gulf of Aden, Indian Ocean and other areas infected by piracy. A demo of the program can be seen by clicking on the following link: http://www.museprogroup.com/training/maritimetrainingintroduction/player.html

cts of piracy affects the free flow of trade between nations. It also puts the lives of seaman in jeopardy as well as posing a risk to the environment. In 1992 the tanker Nagasaki Spirit, whilst transiting the Malacca Straits, was boarded by pirates and the captain taken hostage for ransom. The pirates left the tanker on autopilot travelling at full speed with no one at the helm. The inevitable happened.

The Nagasaki Spirit collided with another ship, the Ocean Blessing, and the resulting explosion killed everyone on board both vessels with the exception of two crew members from the Nagasaki Spirit. Fires on board the Nagasaki Spirit burned for six days, but the fires on board the Ocean Blessing continued to burn for a further six weeks. The costs in lives and on the local environment were immeasurable and prompted the authorities on either side of the straits into action. But not before insurance premiums took a significant hike for vessels travelling through the Malacca Straits. Ship owners were forced to pay the extra cost. This in turn forced up cargo rates which where then passed onto the end consumer.

Even when such acts of wonton environmental vandalism and mass murder are not the goal of pirates and the vessel and crew are taken hostage for ransom, the financial and psychological impact of piracy can be equally devastating

Per Gullestrup , of Clipper Group, speaking at an Anti-Piracy Security Conference in London during October 2009 estimated the cost of retrieving his vessel, the MS CEC Future, at over $12 million, even though the actually ransom was between $1 and $2 million. However, it was not so much the cost of retrieving the vessel that worried Per Gullestrup. It was the psychological impact of prolonged captivity on his crew that concerned him the most. (1) It should be pointed out that Per Gullestrup, and his company, has been exemplary in the psychological aftercare of the crew since their release.

Captain Vinayak Anant Marthe from India had this to say about his successful voyage through the Gulf of Aden:

“I have just come home from Port Said, after successfully commanding a slow speed laden bulk carrier through the Gulf of Aden. We followed the course through the MSPA (Maritime Security Patrol Area) corridor. It was a very tense 40 hour passage. We witnessed an attempted attack just 10 miles behind us, one successful hijacking and another two attempts just close by. Indeed, it was enough to turn anybody a nervous wreck. The stress of sailing through the area is unbelievable – I was a casual smoker before but then I smoked eight packs in 44 hours.”

Considering the various experiences alluded to on this page, it can be surmised that acts of piracy, no matter the scale, have had a detrimental effect on the shipping industry as a whole. The cost of insuring vessels has gone up. The international community has had to divert much needed to resources to ensure trade routes stay open. And crews transiting through high risk waters do so in the knowledge that they may be taken captive and held for a prolonged period.

In all, the image of piracy, far from being the stuff of Hollywood, is a dirty, parasitical business that not only hurts the victims but also those communities far removed from actual piracy incidents. Unfortunately, the situation is unlikely to improve as an international legal framework for dealing with those caught in the commission of a pirate act is non existent. Such is the situation today that many pirates who are caught are often released by their captors only to commit the same crime again.

The problem is that the international community cannot agree on a legal framework for dealing with perpetrators without impinging on the perpetrators’ human rights. Many states, such as Britain, are reluctant to process captured pirates through their own legal system for fear of the economic and social burden of having to care for the pirates once they have served out their sentence. Britain’s human rights legislation prevents the repatriation of an individual to a country where that individual’s life maybe at risk. Somalia is one such country.

Piracy poses a “Catch 22” situation for the international ship security  community and the pirates of Somalia know this and will, in effect, continue to exploit the international community’s lack of resolve to find a solution. Indeed, pirates share information between each other, even running workshops so that they learn from each new encounter with the authorities. This leaves the shipping companies and offshore industries with little option but to deploy more robust defence solutions to protect their assets and personnel. The question is: how robust should these security solutions be, and at what point should they be deployed?