International Journal

on Marine Navigation

and Safety of Sea Transportation

Volume 6

Number 2

June 2012

203

1 INTRODUCTION

One general difference between the social sciences

and the physical sciences is that the physical scienc-

es have control of their laboratory and in fact have to

determine their own variables. The social sciences

are confronted by a plethora of variables that they

artificially order for the purposes of study. The cur-

rent confrontation with piracy poses a challenge for

both classes of science. As piracy is endemic in the

sea within range of Somalia, the main challenge for

the social scientist is in determining how to convert

Somalia from its present virtually stateless condition

to a viable economic entity that values international

law and provides an economic environment in which

piracy is no longer a sensible option for its citizens.

For the physical sciences, particular those acting at

the behest of stakeholders in the global shipping

economy, it is a great challenge to approach the

problem without considering the challenges typically

restricted to the social sciences. In fact, the case

might even be made that the scientific efforts de-

scribed in this paper place the physical scientist in

the position of acting as an ancillary to global polic-

ing activities. This, of course, seems to diminish the

activities of the scientist; however, it is only another

way of saying that science applied in real time to re-

al problems necessarily involves the recognition of

the daunting task of striving to create real methods

that can be implemented as real solutions at virtually

the same time. As an arm of the major economic in-

terests, the scientists who operate in the arena of pi-

racy are disposed to devise methods to counter the

threat piracy poses to global shipping, which primar-

ily affects western European, North American, and

East Asian economies.

Technological Advances and Efforts to Reduce

Piracy

M. Perkovic, E. Twrdy, R. Harsch & P. Vidmar

University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Maritime studies and Transport, Slovenia

M. Gucma

Maritime University of Szczecin, Poland

ABSTRACT: The technological contributions to the reduction of piracy not only involve implementations of

recent technological advances, but, importantly, the dissemination of the education required to apply current

and future technologies, particularly in those states in the regions where piracy is rampant. To this end, the

EU’s MARSIC project, with the stated aim of enhancing security and safety in the Gulf of Aden and the

western Indian Ocean through ‘..information sharing and capacity building, (and) highlighting regional coop-

eration’ (Marsic 1st monitoring report, 2010) has recently been inaugurated. The Faculty of Maritime Studies

and Transport of the University of Ljubljana, and the Maritime University of Szczecin, as partners in this pro-

ject, will bring to bear both the most advanced technological applications to maritime affairs of satellite im-

agery, simulation, and risk assessment, and guarantee their utility through the transfer of knowledge. In Yem-

en and Djibouti, maritime stations will be established, personnel trained, and a sustainable level of expertise

eventually left in place. Interest in such projects has also been expressed by maritime experts in Tanzania and

Kenya. The advantage this approach has over other donor-supported solutions begins with regional involve-

ment and an inclusive approach, its ultimate success to a large degree dependant on factors external to the

project such as financial incentives for the nations of the region to protect European and Far East Asian ship-

ping. The project is closely coordinated with a parallel EU-funded project executed by European Commis-

sion’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) on maritime surveillance technologies application in the region.

204

Figure 1: Extent of 2010 Pirate attacks (Threat Map, 2005-

2010)

The importance of this consideration will be high-

lighted shortly. First, it should be of benefit to any-

one concerned with piracy in the vicinity of the Red

Sea, eastern Africa, and the Arabian Sea, to be

aware of the point of view of the peoples bordering

these waters. The global economic shift that took

place once Europeans decisively established them-

selves as the powers of the Indian Ocean is not

viewed passively as an inevitable manifestation of a

superior economic system by the people of India,

Iran, the Hadramaut, Somalia, Egypt, and so on

(Chaudhuri 1985, Das Gupta 2001, Floor 2006,

Hall 1998, Hourani 1995, Braudel, 1995). In the

west we are taught that Vasco da Gama was the first

to round the cape of Africa. We are not taught that,

in fact, he was the harbinger of massive forced

change, disruption to a trade extant for multiple mil-

lennia, and eventually the decimation of economies

that have yet to recover from the onslaught. Nor are

we taught that da Gama himself returned to India a

second time and committed atrocities of unimagina-

ble brutality without provocation (Hall 1998, Harsch

2011). This is not to say that memories of such dep-

redations linger at the forefront of the minds of those

in this region, it is fair to say that this history pro-

vides a measure of the context of their thought de-

velopment.

Focusing specifically on Somalia and Somalians,

as the Somalians are the greatest threat to global

shipping (among pirates), again the physical scientist

would do well to consider some social circumstanc-

es. First, as Somalia is without a coast guard or navy

of any effect, their extensive waters are subject to

extensive pirate fishing. This problem is not limited

to Somalia, but extends to all troubled developing

coastal countries. According to a report by the Envi-

ronmental Justice Foundation, "Illegal, unreported

and unregulated (IUU) fishing is one of the most se-

rious threats to the future of world fisheries. It is

now occurring in virtually all fishing grounds from

shallow coastal waters to deep oceans. It is believed

to account for a significant proportion of the global

catch and to be costing developing countries up to

$15bn a year." (Guardian, 2009). Yet more nefari-

ous is the illegal dumping of hazardous wastes in

waters of vulnerable countries: “In 1991, the gov-

ernment of Somalia collapsed. Its nine million peo-

ple have been teetering on starvation ever since –

and the ugliest forces in the Western world have

seen this as a great opportunity to steal the country's

food supply and dump our nuclear waste in their

seas. Yes: nuclear waste. As soon as the government

was gone, mysterious European ships started appear-

ing off the coast of Somalia, dumping vast barrels

into the ocean. The coastal population began to sick-

en. At first they suffered strange rashes, nausea and

malformed babies. Then, after the 2005 tsunami,

hundreds of the dumped and leaking barrels washed

up on shore. People began to suffer from radiation

sickness, and more than 300 died” (Hari, 2009). The

point is not to shift the focus from piracy and the

need to find methods to reduce its impact, rather to

ensure that no one involved in efforts to combat the

scourge proceed unaware of a strikingly important

aspect of its context. Practically, this means that in-

volvement in such European Commission projects as

MARSIC (Gaullier, 2010), which plans to open

functioning information sharing centers in Djibouti

and Yemen, providing advanced training and

equipment to these centers designed to be fully op-

erated by local professionals, are aware that, for ex-

ample, consideration is given to the need to enhance

Yemeni and Djibouti economic prospects through

this effort, to make this perhaps the first step in in-

cluding especially Yemen, the poorest of Arab coun-

tries, in the global maritime trade complex in such a

way that its benefit extend far beyond the fortuitous

circumstance of having a port, Aden, in a strategic

location.

2 MARSIC

The EU MARSIC program is designed as a step to-

ward improving the safety and security of shipping

in the western Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden,

areas of intensive pirate activities, through the crea-

tion of Regional Maritime Institutes (RMI) in the re-

gion, including Djibouti, Yemen, Kenya, Tanzania,

and other signatory countries of the Djibouti Code of

Conduct, which pledges these countries to combat

piracy through information sharing on the regional

level. MARSIC intends to offer the resources and

training to provide these RMIs the latest technology

applicable to vessel traffic monitoring, information

sharing, and situational analysis based on up-to-date

data bases. Merely implementing AIS would be an

advancement in most countries, but the challenge

addressed by the authors of this paper also include

applications of satellite imagery, risk assessment,

and the upgrading of legal systems.

205

Notwithstanding the background of the explosion

of piracy in the target areas and the legitimate griev-

ances of peoples of the region, efforts to reduce the

instances of piracy and the economic effects of these

instances are urgently necessary. One conclusion ar-

rived at both by IMO and the regional littoral coun-

tries of the infested areas is that regional involve-

ment is necessary. The MARSIC program intends to

support regional efforts in part through the sharing

of the most advanced technological aids available.

At both the EC-JRC and the University of Ljubljana

Faculty of Maritime Studies and Transport the uses

of satellite imagery for maritime purposes has been

an ongoing project. Advances have been rapid and

effective. For instance, it is now, largely through the

efforts of scientists at both these institutes, possible

to locate oil spills and backtrack towards the identi-

fication of illegal polluters (Perkovic, et al. 2010), as

well as to determine causes and effects that would

otherwise be mystifying (Ferraro, et al. 2010). One

of the frustrating aspects of the constant increase in

instances of piracy is that the traditional guardians of

commerce at sea, navies, have been unable to reduce

the number of instances, even though some 25 ships,

assisted by many patrol aircraft and even submarines

from about 20 different countries patrol the seas.

Satellite technology applications, risk analysis, mari-

time law, VTS, and maritime communications tech-

niques will all be part of the effort to create effective

RMIs in the region.

3 MARITIME DOMAIN AWARENESS

To combat piracy, or in fact any illegal or undesired

activity at sea, it is in the first place necessary to be

aware of what is going on, and be alerted to threats

and problems. Currently, the countries in the Horn

of Africa region are either lacking such awareness,

financially incapable of contributing to a resolution

of the problem, or politically disinclined to do so.

This is understandable, as up to now there was no

pressing need to invest in an (expensive) maritime

surveillance and patrol infrastructure. Now, howev-

er, the situation has changed, with, as explained

above, not only piracy, but also illegal fishing, waste

dumping and trafficking affecting the regional secu-

rity situation. At present, foreign navies fulfill the

task of providing maritime security (within the strin-

gent bounds of international law) and the maritime

awareness needed to do so, using the top-level tech-

nical means at the disposal of the military. In the

long term, however, such a foreign presence is not

sustainable or desirable. The challenge is to find

ways, technical means, for the national authorities in

the region to use in building up their maritime do-

main awareness by themselves. The Pilot Project on

Piracy, Maritime Awareness and Risks, carried out

by the JRC, explores this problem (Greidanus,2011).

The project considers a wide variety of sources of

information on ship traffic, ranging from cooperative

(reporting) systems (LRIT, VMS, AIS, Satellite-AIS

(figure 2), VTS, call-in regimes) to observation sys-

tems (coastal radar, satellite imaging as VDS – Ves-

sel Detection System presented in figure 3), and as-

sessing the feasibility for operational use by national

authorities in the Horn of Africa region and cost-

benefit aspects. While the use of reporting systems is

in large part related to legal aspects, the challenge

for experts in satellite imagery analysis is to over-

come technological hurdles, taking into account its

particularities, viz. its capability to detect but not

identify ships, its ability to survey even the most re-

mote regions but not to continuously monitor, and

the delays between the observation of the scene and

the delivery of analysis results.

Figure 2: Sat-AIS “ExactEarth” tracks per day. “Result pro-

duced by JRC. Includes copyrighted material of exactEarth

Figure 2: Sat-AIS “ExactEarth” tracks per day. “Result pro-

duced by JRC. Includes copyrighted material of exactEarth

206

4 CONCLUSION

Writing just after the so-far-called jasmine revolu-

tions of Tunisia and Egypt, with protests emerging

in force across northern Africa and much of Arabia,

it is both difficult to imagine the regional circum-

stances five months from now when the TransNav

symposium is held in Gdynia and to view a problem

such as piracy in an historic maritime zone such as

the Indian Ocean, not to mention the Bab el Mandab,

even the Red Sea, without giving thought to extra-

scientific matters. Therefore this paper, before intro-

ducing the MARSIC and EC-JRC projects, takes

time to discuss aspects of piracy that may be rele-

vant and, certainly in the case of the MARSIC pro-

ject, even decisive regarding the success of the pro-

jects. Currently, the MARSIC project’s focus is on

the RMI to be established in Sana’a, where volatile

protests and counter-protests are occurring daily,

while elsewhere in the country, aside from support-

ive protests in other cities, a vigorous separatist

movement is underway.

Certainly both projects, from the social sciences

point of view, seem to be on the right track in en-

couraging regional autonomy. The technology is

available, through satellites, AIS, VTS, etc., to at the

very least reduce the extent of the problem in the

long run. And given current and past circumstances,

piracy is least problematically approached by re-

gional stakeholders—the one question being to what

extent they believe that they are indeed stakeholders.

Certainly cooperation between the countries of the

region and Europe (and other developed nations),

the sharing of technology and expertise and the fi-

nancial support on the part of the EC is for the nonce

as good a place to start as any.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Special thanks to Dr. Harm Greidanus, EC-JRC for

technical contributions.

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