Swift information exchanges can help ships steer clear of danger
By TOM WITHINGTON, Special Correspondent
an official from the International
Maritime Bureau in London.
The PRC Web site hosts information regarding recent incidents
in a live piracy report that summarizes the type of vessel attacked,
the attack’s location, and the date
and details of the incident.
“Attack number 2010/002. Date:
Saturday, January 2nd, 2010 …
Location detail: Gulf of Aden …
Pirates hijacked a vehicle carrier
underway with its 25 crew members
as hostage. They are now sailing the
vessel to an undisclosed location in
Somalia,” reads the message describing the hijack of the British-flagged
MV Asian Glory, which is owned by
In addition, the PRC site hosts a live piracy map
detailing the location of the hijackings, giving crews an
instant glance of possible danger areas. The three incidents marked on the live map in early January were
located in the notorious Strait of Malacca and Gulf of
Aden/Somali Coast trouble spots.
The Web site includes Piracy Alerts, notifying crews
of measures they can perform to minimize the risk of
being attacked, along with information regarding suspect
vessels and details of areas of ocean where merchant
ships are strongly advised to take extra precautions.
Several companies now offer broadband Internet services for merchant vessels, allowing for faster access to, and
greater availability of, Web resources over a wider area of
ocean waters. For example, in October 2008, Wallem
Group of Hong Kong equipped the tanker MV Sonangol
Kizomba with a 432-kilobytes-per-second FleetBroadband
satellite communications service. In addition to making
piracy activity information available, such satellite-based
Internet links allow crews to receive information regarding
Satellite communications and messaging systems are key to alerting merchant ships of potential trouble spots on their routes.
■ The International Maritime Organization’s Global Maritime
Distress and Safety System uses satellite and terrestrial radio
communications to ensure that aid can be dispatched regardless
of where a distressed ship is located.
■ The Ship Security Alert System sends messages via satellite
directly or through a communications services provider alerting
authorities that a vessel is under threat or has been attacked.
■ Several companies now offer broadband Internet services for
Satellite communication advances and the Internet are becoming criticaltoolsfor advis- ing merchant vessel crews of the dangers
posed by modern-day pirates that may be operating in
their immediate locale, allowing them to avoid such
areas or configure their ships accordingly to make it
harder for pirates to come aboard.
Organizations such as the Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia-based International Maritime Bureau’s (IMB’s) Piracy
Reporting Centre (PRC) play a vital role in informing
merchant shipping of the dangers they may face where
they are navigating, and the Internet has played a major
part in expediting this information to ships equipped for
such communications. At the same time, Ship Security
Alert System (SSAS) and Global Maritime Distress and
Safety System (GMDSS) messaging ensure that timely
information can be received onshore, and by other
ships, regarding threatened attacks or actual pirate
attacks that are in progress.
The early notification is vital in helping merchant
ships avoid danger areas where pirates are operating,
or where there have been recent attacks, according to