Armed vessels do not report pirate attacks
SHIPPING: Operators, who sail with armed guards on board their ships to protect them from pirates, fail increasingly reporting attacks. This development worries the International Maritime Bureau / IMB.
"Vessels with private armed security do not report attacks attempts which other ships reported earlier", says Pottengal Mukundan, director of the International Maritime Bureau, on Tuesday at a conference in London.
"There can be many reasons for this, but one could be that they fear being held accountable, or that the owners have clauses in their contracts preventing any reporting of attempted attacks by pirates", said Pottengal Mukundan.
Mukundan said at the conference that until recently far more alerts have been announced.
"But at the moment we have a feeling that such reports are being withheld. It is very important and essential that all pirate attacks are reported for the sake of the ships that come along after on the same path,", said Pottengal Mukundan.
During the third quarter only a single attack on a merchant ship off the coast of Somalia has been registered, compared with 36 attacks in the same period last year.
During the first three quarters, there was a total of 70 pirate attacks, compared with 199 attacks in the same period last year. The number of pirate attacks is the lowest in three years.
Source: DR News
