How did Somalia's fishermen become Pirates?

[calvert]

As another poster recently said, "there always is another side to the story", isn't there?

Amid the current media frenzy about Somali pirates, it's hard not to imagine them as characters in some dystopian Horn of Africa version of Waterworld. We see wily corsairs in ragged clothing swarming out of their elusive mother ships, chewing narcotic khat while thumbing GPS phones and grappling hooks. They are not desperate bandits, experts say, rather savvy opportunists in the most lawless corner of the planet. But the pirates have never been the only ones exploiting the vulnerabilities of this troubled failed state — and are, in part, a product of the rest of the world's neglect. Ever since a civil war brought down Somalia's last functional government in 1991, the country's 3,330 km (2,000 miles) of coastline — the longest in continental Africa — has been pillaged by foreign vessels. A United Nations report in 2006 said that, in the absence of the country's at one time serviceable coastguard, Somali waters have become the site of an international "free for all," with fishing fleets from around the world illegally plundering Somali stocks and freezing out the country's own rudimentarily-equipped fishermen.

According to another U.N. report, an estimated $300 million worth of seafood is stolen from the country's coastline each year. "In any context," says Gustavo Carvalho, a London-based researcher with Global Witness, an environmental NGO, "that is a staggering sum."
In the face of this, impoverished Somalis living by the sea have been forced over the years to defend their own fishing expeditions out of ports such as Eyl, Kismayo and Harardhere — all now considered to be pirate dens. Somali fishermen, whose industry was always small-scale, lacked the advanced boats and technologies of their interloping competitors, and also complained of being shot at by foreign fishermen with water cannons and firearms. "The first pirate gangs emerged in the '90s to protect against foreign trawlers," says Peter Lehr, lecturer in terrorism studies at Scotland's University of St. Andrews and editor of Violence at Sea: Piracy in the Age of Global Terrorism. The names of existing pirate fleets, such as the National Volunteer Coastguard of Somalia or Somali Marines, are testament to the pirates' initial motivations.

The waters they sought to protect, says Lehr, were "an El Dorado for fishing fleets of many nations." A 2006 study published in the journal Science predicted that the current rate of commercial fishing would virtually empty the world's oceanic stocks by 2050. Yet, Somalia's seas still offer a particularly fertile patch for tuna, sardines and mackerel, and other lucrative species of seafood, including lobsters and sharks. In other parts of the Indian Ocean region, such as the Persian Gulf, fishermen resort to dynamite and other extreme measures to pull in the kinds of catches that are still in abundance off the Horn of Africa.

High-seas trawlers from countries as far flung as South Korea, Japan and Spain have operated down the Somali coast, often illegally and without licenses, for the better part of two decades, the U.N. says. They often fly flags of convenience from sea-faring friendly nations like Belize and Bahrain, which further helps the ships skirt international regulations and evade censure from their home countries. Tsuma Charo of the Nairobi-based East African Seafarers Assistance Programme, which monitors Somali pirate attacks and liaises with the hostage takers and the captured crews, says "illegal trawling has fed the piracy problem." In the early days of Somali piracy, those who seized trawlers without licenses could count on a quick ransom payment, since the boat owners and companies backing those vessels didn't want to draw attention to their violation of international maritime law. This, Charo reckons, allowed the pirates to build up their tactical networks and whetted their appetite for bigger spoils.
In the meantime, Somali piracy has metastasized into the country's only boom industry. Most of the pirates, observers say, are not former fishermen, but just poor folk seeking their fortune. Right now, they hold 18 cargo ships and some 300 sailors hostage — the work of a sophisticated and well-funded operation. A few pirates have offered testimony to the international press — a headline in Thursday's Times of London read,


"They stole our lobsters: A Somali pirate tells his side of the story"

[ear]

Was there a point to this question? You seem to have answered it with various news items. I think what you were looking for is a forum rather than a Q&A

[darrick34]

Wow, you answered your own question. What was I thinking? There must be other places you can blog.

[baigh75]

Wow, you answered your own question. What was I thinking? There must be other places you can blog.

They are hijacking cargo ships, not fishing boats. There is no excuse for piracy. Two wrongs do not make it right.

[demarco]

Wow, you answered your own question. What was I thinking? There must be other places you can blog.

They are hijacking cargo ships, not fishing boats. There is no excuse for piracy. Two wrongs do not make it right.

Why are pirates called pirates?




cos they arrrrrr!

[lifton]

someone gave them a fishing rod instead of a fish

[morcan]

Because historical development has made them into violent corrupt people , in other words it is inherent in their character, they have never in history been anything else.

In my opinion any other explanation is political and PC rather than scientific. ,

Somalis and other Africans have not been able to organise secure economies for themselves, this is down to Africans themselves nobody else



A moderate response would be the standard issue of heavy machine guns on merchant ships, not to be fired before the pirates showed RPGs or other weapons

[hussein]

They were first victims of piracy, as you said. They saw how the pirates prospered. They were being deprived of their livelihoods by the rich.

You did a good job pointing out the Somali side. The Somalis have been remarkably gentle pirates, so far.

[gall]

Thanks for raising the issue. You're right, there are always two sides to a story. It seems quite sad that people have been pushed into a life of crime. It makes more sense now.

Maybe the lesson that we learn is that we shouldn't stand by and let little people be abused, or they might just turn around into the abusers.

Where were the warships when the fishermen's livelihoods were being stolen?

I'm not supporting their actions, but I can see why more clearly now.

[fionnbharr]

In reality until the world has the balls to do something about the various disparate tribal rulers who have descended this nation into anarchy and civil war then this type of piracy will continue. I agree that this is an act of desperation and whilst not excusing it feel that there are bigger issues at the root of it. It is spreading around Africa as well and has been happening of the West Africa coast for years for very much the same reasons. Unfortunately the moment anyone mentions taking a firm hand with African dictators and warlords - you get accused of being a racist.