PERHAPS the scourge of piracy on the high seas has been with us since the existence of modern man. In fact, at one time in history pirates were heroes of the colonial powers and at least one country has granted many of them knighthoods.

Today this scourge is still with us, although its form may have changed and pirates are no more officially recognised as heroes, but continue to create havoc.
Jennifer Booton in her article: “Piracy Pays: Inside the Lucrative Fight to Foil High-Sea Hijackings”, notes that gone are the days of one-eyed pirates being chased by the dilapidated schooners of ancient naval fleets. The modern-day fight against piracy is more like a 21st century James Bond movie, and it’s a lucrative multi-billion-dollar business.
Efforts to protect the seas and the shippers responsible for transporting billions of dollars worth of goods each year have ramped up over the last few years amid the re-emergence a half a decade ago of piracy.
Oceans Beyond Piracy estimated in a new report released recently that the cost of piracy in 2012 ranged between $5.7 billion and $6 billion. While that’s down 12.6% from a high of $7 billion in 2011, the cost was reduced as attacks fell sharply and the speed of boats through high-risk areas fell, both a reflection of wide adoption of armed guards on sea-faring vessels – the cost of which rose a staggering 80% last year to a high of $1.53 billion.
“The overall cost to the international community remains considerable,” Oceans Beyond Piracy said in a new report, adding that while attacks have fallen to the lowest level since 2007, “the cost to prevent each attack has gone up significantly.”
From the pirates and organised crime rings fuelling their sophistication to the private maritime security providers, insurers offering ransom and war coverage at sea and the attorneys who are paid handsome fees to negotiate hefty ransoms, piracy has grown into a thriving business.
The growing number and improving quality of private maritime security providers was at the heart of a 33% decline in pirate attacks in 2012, to 297 from a high of 445 in 2010, according to the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). The ICC predicts an even greater decline to just 47 in 2013.
Here in Guyana the piracy scourge, while it is not so widespread is seriously affecting our fisherfolk who risk their lives on a daily basis to put food on our tables and help provide national food security.
Many people do not appreciate and acknowledge the risks and sacrifices that our fisherfolk endure against the ravages of nature.
It is therefore heart-breaking and traumatic when pirates savagely beat, kill and rob fisherfolk, who are not wealthy but work extremely hard to earn a livelihood to maintain their families and to provide food for the nation.
The Ministry of Agriculture has been working closely with our Coast Guard to combat this piracy scourge, but it has to be acknowledged that it is not an easy task because it is extremely difficult to determine when and where these savages will attack.
It means therefore that intelligence work has to be intensified and more electronic and modern technologies have to be employed in the anti-piracy fight.
On this note, it was encouraging to learn that the UWI, Trinidad Campus is offering help to our country in the anti-piracy fight. We reported yesterday that UWI’s senior Lecturer in the Department of Engineering, Ms. Kim Malialieu, made a presentation in Rwanda on the use of fisheries application suite on mobile phones to seek emergency response.
This certainly will be a significant step forward, in addition also to the application of GPS technology.
The crucial issue is that piracy has to be arrested now before it becomes a monster and therefore much more difficult to handle.