Emerging Piracy Threat off the West African Coast and Somali Piracy Essay

Emerging Piracy Threat off the West African Coast and Somali Piracy - Essay Example One definition, which relies on international law, confines piracy to attacks on the high seas and restricts attacks on state territorial waters. The other definition of piracy is more practical and is used by the international maritime bureau that encompasses both high seas and state territorial attacks. Lack of a common definition of piracy makes piracy a threat to almost all ports. This is because there is no known extent of piracy, no accurate and binding statistics on piracy activities hence inadequate allocation of resources to avert this menace (Great Britain: Parliament, 2006, p.10-11). Generally, piracy involves acts of robbery or criminal violence at sea and those who commit piracy are known as pirates. However, the definition of piracy under the 1992 Special Report on Piracy of the International Maritime Bureau as an act of boarding a vessel with an intention to commit robbery or other criminal activities with an ability to use force in attaining this goal. In the West African Coast and Somali coastline, this includes attacks on the vessel on passage, in port, at anchor, against the cargo, passengers, and crew of the vessel (Beckman, 1994, p.5). It entails simply attacking a ship or facilitating that attack. For a fact, piracy has adverse effects on the daily running of port operations (Talley, 2009, p.34-37), world security, and international business. Indeed, maritime piracy has direct costs on humanitarian assistance, adversely affects maritime economic activities like fishing, oil production and cost of energy, tourism, insurance, and shipping costs (Mbekeani and Ncube, 2011, p. 5). Upon hijacking vessels, the pirates call for ransoms to release the hijacked vessels. In 2011, ransom reached an epitome when Greek owners paid $13.5 million for the release of the Irene, an oil tanker.  Ã‚