Study: More Efficient Shipping Patterns Returning as Pirate Attacks Decline

The study shows that vessels are returning to sailing along the shortest route, closer to the Somali coast, at slower and more-efficient speeds.

A study from the European Commission's Joint Research Centre says that the impact of pirate attacks on ships in the western Indian Ocean is declining and that shipping patterns in the region have returned to what they were before the height of pirate attacks, SciDev.Net reports.
 
The paper, which is set to be published in the September's Marine Policy, reportedly shows that vessels have increasingly returned to sailing along the shortest route, closer to the Somali coast along which pirates had been based, at slower and more-efficient speeds, thereby lowering fuel consumption and cutting transport costs.
 
The study is said to be based on analysis of data gathered between 2009 and 2014 from the international Long-Range Identification and Tracking (LRIT) system, which uses satellite positioning to track vessels.
 
"More than two years have elapsed without a successful attack," said Dimitrios Dalaklis, a maritime security specialist with the World Maritime University in Sweden.

Dalakis says that this is a "very strong indicator" that international efforts to curb pirate attacks, such as the use of foreign naval vessels to patrol in the western Indian Ocean, are effective.
 
David Michel, director of the Environmental Security programme at the Stimson Center, says that the study shows how piracy not only affected those ships that reported suspicious events and attacks, but also altered shipping routes, speeds and costs for vessels, regardless of whether pirates were encountered or not.

However, Michel notes that the study "does not illuminate which policy measures proved more or less effective or why."

"As such, policymakers unfortunately cannot draw lessons from the study concerning the relative impacts of the foreign naval deployments, for example, versus the adoption of best management practices."
 
Emmanuel Mbaru, a fisheries researcher at the Wildlife Conservation Society in Kenya, says the use of LRIT data in this study is authoritative, and encourages policymakers must enable access to such data sets to address other geopolitical issues concerning maritime trade routes.

In early June, Oceans Beyond Piracy said that there are indications that pirate activity and intent in Somalia remain, and cited a total estimated economic cost in the region of $2.3 billion.