Somali piracy hijacks fall by a third in 2011 The number of hijackings attributed to Somali pirates fell 36 per cent last year from 2010, as the shipping industry and governments intensified efforts to combat the threat, according to the latest attempt to quantify the issue. The analysis, by the Colorado-based One Earth Future Foundation, also estimates that Somali piracy cost the global economy between $6.6bn and $6.9bn, down from $7bn to $12bn in the previous 12 months. Building on a report it published last year, the foundation said that, while the number of attacks in 2011 rose to a record 237, from 212 in 2010, the number of vessels captured fell to 28, from 44 in 2010 and 52 in 2009. Average ransoms, however, rose to $4.97m, from $4m in 2010. Some $160m was paid in ransoms. The latest study scales down its estimates of the cost, largely because it suggests shipowners are no longer diverting ships from the high-risk area around Somalia by going round the Cape of Good Hope, but are sailing close to the Indian coast. Anna Bowden, the report's author, said the analysis looked at nine cost factors for the shipping industry and governments as a result of piracy. The foundation had had substantial contact with the shipping industry following last year's analysis which, Ms Bowden said, helped narrow the range of the latest estimate. Shipping companies paid far more to avoid attacks than they did in ransoms. Shipowners paid an extra $2.7bn for fuel to run at high speed through the highest-risk area to reduce the likelihood of capture. They also spent $1.1bn on security equipment and armed guards, $635m on insurance, and $486m to $680m re-routing vessels along the western Indian coast. Seafarers, meanwhile, received an extra $195m pay for operating in the highest-risk area. Ms Bowden also pointed out that there had been substantial suffering for seafarers on attacked and hijacked ships, including a number of deaths. "We do note with great concern that there were a significant number of piracy-related deaths, hostages taken, and seafarers subject to traumatic armed attacks in 2011," she said. This happened in spite of the success of armed guards and military action in the later part of the year.