Much has been made of the drop in pirate attacks of late, as strong winds, heavy rain and big waves have led to a massive 74% reduction in Somali pirate activity.
This has led some to believe that the pirate threat is over, but is it? The optimists claim that nature, has combined with armed guards, navies, African armies and the global banking system to put a rain lashed, foam topped squeeze on the sea bandits.
Much has been made of the drop in pirate attacks of late, as strong winds, heavy rain and big waves have led to a massive 74% reduction in Somali pirate activity.
This has led some to believe that the pirate threat is over, but is it? The optimists claim that nature, has combined with armed guards, navies, African armies and the global banking system to put a rain lashed, foam topped squeeze on the sea bandits.
In order to pirates to attack they need low sea states – the minute waves become higher than 2 m-3 m then skiffs become more dangerous to the occupants than to shipping. According to the data over this monsoon season parts of the Indian Ocean have seen waves higher than 8 m – this has been accompanied by gale force winds and heavy rain. There has even been some seismic activity.
All in all, if you think the UK has had a bad summer, it hasn’t been a patch on how hard the weather has hit the Indian Ocean and the HRA. So what now? Well the southwest monsoon lasts from May to September – and as the calender slowly ticks down, it is clear that soon we will see conditions change. Once more the blue skies, flat seas and tropical breezes will return…which is most likely to bring the pirates back out.
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