A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
There's been an uptick in piracy on the waters around the Middle East. So far, the number of incidents is small. But maritime intelligence groups say they could increase because attention and resources are focused on the Strait of Hormuz. Here's NPR's international affairs correspondent Jackie Northam.
JACKIE NORTHAM, BYLINE: In late April, the Honour 25, an oil tanker, was sailing off the coast of Somalia when several armed men boarded the vessel and hijacked it. Over the next week, a cargo ship, the Sward, and another tanker, the Eureka, off the coast of Yemen, were also seized by pirates.
DANIEL MUELLER: The hijacked vessels were highly likely hijacked by Somali individuals.
NORTHAM: Daniel Mueller is a senior analyst at Ambrey, a maritime intelligence agency. He says the ships were diverted towards Somalia.
MUELLER: All three are within two miles of the Somali coastline right now, stationary. That is consistent with what Somali pirate action groups would've done in the past when they were conducting ransom negotiations.
NORTHAM: The concern is whether these attacks portend a crisis similar to the one that rattled the shipping industry between 2009 and 2011, an era captured in the movie "Captain Phillips."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CAPTAIN PHILLIPS")
TOM HANKS: (As Captain Richard Phillips) Four pirates on board. Four pirates coming towards us down the main deck. Lock down the bridge.
NORTHAM: John Walker was with the British Royal Navy for three decades focusing on counterpiracy and counterterrorism, now with EOS risk management group. He says there have been up to a dozen pirate attacks this year, but that's only a tiny amount compared to a few years ago.
JOHN WALKER: In 2011, there were 237 attacks. At the peak in that year, there were over 30 vessels held hostage in Somalia.
NORTHAM: Walker says the piracy around Somalia back then became a serious risk for shipping. And there was a full, internationally coordinated response to bring it under control.
WALKER: These are the kind of things that included rigging razor wire on the upper deck of the ship, changes of speed and course, and over time, that combination of making commercial vessels harder to board and hijack.
NORTHAM: Also, making sure the crew has an impenetrable room in which to hide, hiring private security guards. And a coalition of navies was assembled to patrol the waters off of Somalia.
SALEEM KHAN: It was a joint effort between the EU, NATO, U.S. Navy that was responsible for enforcing this.
NORTHAM: Saleem Khan with Pole Star Global, a maritime intelligence firm, says once the crisis passed, many of these practices fell off. It costs money to secure the ship, pay for private security. And, Khan says, now there's only a few ships from the EU patrolling an enormous area.
KHAN: The U.S. Navy and other navies are tied up with the Iran conflict and so the warships are no longer around. And so there's no one to enforce Somali pirates and make sure that they get detained and put away.
NORTHAM: Mueller, with Ambrey maritime intelligence, says Somali pirates are also watching what's happening in the Strait of Hormuz. He says in one case, the pirates sailed past merchant ships in order to hijack an oil tanker.
MUELLER: And that makes me believe there's a good chance it's related to the fuel prices, not directly connected to what is going on in the region, but that that has had an influence on increased pirate activity that we're seeing now.
NORTHAM: Pirate activity that could spread as the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz drags on. Jackie Northam, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF AJJA'S "STAGE LEFT") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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