A year like no other. In 2020, the global economy endured its deepest recession in 74 years, as the COVID-19 virus pandemic upended lives and livelihoods. We already know that we will feel the reverberations of the Novel Coronavirus for months and years to come. As we face the unknown challenges of the economic and geopolitical reverberations of the global pandemic, it is vitally important that we understand and plan for the continuing human toll that maritime crime and impeded sea transits will continue to have on crews, seafarers and ...

The container ship Mozart was more than 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers/230 miles) off the Nigerian coast in January when the pirates struck out of nowhere. Media outlets published reports of dramatic scenes on board the vessel: While the ship’s crew cowered in a safe room fearing for their lives, the pirates quietly set about their work getting to them. It took them six hours to break open the door to the so-called Citadel but they did it. In the end, one crew member was killed and 15 others were ...

Warnings, advisories and piracy incidents in the Indian Ocean Area by the UKMTO in the past week.

Unauthorised servicing of life saving equipment could jeopardise more than the people who are using it. An announcement from ISSETA (International Safety and Survival Equipment Technical Association) points out that ships unable to prove that their safety equipment has been serviced by a qualified maintenance contractor risk being detained under port state control legislation. According to Erik Soendergaard, secretary to ISSETA, ports can object to ships attempting to pass-off service certificates from unapproved contractors as being genuine. The ports may identify the ships as potentially endangering the lives of their ...

Fifteen Turkish sailors kidnapped by pirates last month in the Gulf of Guinea arrived back in Turkey on Sunday and the ship’s captain described how they faced death threats and were held in a forest during their three-week ordeal. The sailors hugged relatives as they arrived before dawn at Istanbul Airport, where they were greeted by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and other officials, two days after news of their release in Nigeria emerged. “We were in a forest. There were tough conditions. There were constantly armed men at our ...

Fifteen Turkish sailors kidnapped by pirates last month in the Gulf of Guinea have been freed in Nigeria and will head home, a shipping company executive said on Friday, two weeks after the attackers made contact to discuss a ransom. One sailor, a citizen of Azerbaijan, was killed in the raid on Jan. 23 which crew, family members and security sources described as a sophisticated and well-orchestrated attack. Those kidnapped were from Turkey. Speaking to state TV broadcaster TRT Haber, Levent Karsan from Istanbul-based Boden Shipping said the sailors were ...

Warnings, advisories and piracy incidents in the Indian Ocean Area by the UKMTO in the past week.

As highlighted in our previous alert “Maritime security recommendations for operations in the Persian Gulf” of 7 January 2021, heightened military activity and increased political tensions in the Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Gulf of Aden and Red Sea region continue to pose serious threats to commercial vessels. At the same time, the piracy activity in the Gulf of Guinea is rising and 2020 saw the highest ever number of crews kidnapped in the region, with incidents occurring farther from shore and attackers becoming increasingly more violent. Our alert “Maritime ...

In January 2021, seven incidents of armed robbery against ships¹ were reported in Asia. No piracy² incident was reported. The ReCAAP ISC is concerned with the continued occurrence of incidents on board ships while underway in the Singapore Strait. In January 2021, three incidents were reported in the eastbound lane of the Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS) in the Singapore Strait. The incidents occurred in close proximity to each other, and in particular, two incidents occurred within an interval of four hours. The ReCAAP ISC has issued an Incident Alert [IA ...

With the help of BIMCO, NIST, ISO 27K etc., the IMO Directive for the new ISM Code 2021 for the Integration of Cyber Security in Maritime is already in force for Ship Owners, Ship Management, Vessels, Crew & the whole Third Party. “The emergence of new roles such as Master Captain / Navigation Officer, Designated Person Ashore (DPA), Cyber Security Officer (CySO) George Papaioannou, Head of Cyber Security for the Maritime business unit of Crontab Cyber explains signals the immediate need for new areas of responsibilities”. Many employees or seafarers ...

The International Maritime Security Construct (IMSC) has announced its second Stakeholders Conference, to be held Feb. 23, 2021. The theme of this maritime security event is “Security Through Partnership,” which emphasises the international partnership between industry, governments, and shipping organisations to promote the freedom of navigation, reassure commercial shipping and deter aggression. The conference will feature guest speakers from the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKTMO), U.S. Naval Forces Central Command’s Naval Cooperation and Guidance for Shipping (NCAGS) and maritime risk managers Den Norske Krigsforsikring for Skib Intelligence & Operations ...

Nigeria’s navy plans to strengthen its measures to root out and punish personnel who collude with kidnappers and criminals, its new naval chief said. Kidnappings in the Gulf of Guinea, which covers 2.3 million sq km and borders some 20 countries, hit a record last year, according to the International Maritime Bureau. Well-armed, violent pirates operate there out of Nigeria’s hard-to-police Delta swamps, and experts say their increasingly bold tactics show that better enforcement is badly needed. Rear Admiral A.Z. Gambo, who was appointed as Nigeria’s naval chief of staff ...

The European shipping industry welcomes the EU’s political commitment to a first pilot of the new Coordinated Maritime Presences (CMP) concept in the Gulf of Guinea off the coast of West Africa, but cautions that the situation remains very precarious for European and international merchant vessels and more needs to be done urgently. The shipping industry remains extremely concerned about the continued rise of armed attacks on merchant vessels in the Gulf of Guinea. Through the CMP concept launch, the EU is taking a positive first step to pool and ...

DG Risk Group has acquired armed maritime security company Protection Vessels International, along with its trading division Halcyon Yacht Security growing its operational and commercial capability considerably. Protection Vessels International (PVI), a UK-based global maritime security company, specialises in armed maritime security solutions for commercial and governmental agencies. Most recently PVI, in unison with DG Risk Group, supported and partnered with various navies in the Gulf of Guinea in support of two major offshore projects including a high-profile cable laying project. This involved working closely with 6 different jurisdictions each ...

Warnings, advisories and piracy incidents in the Indian Ocean Area by the UKMTO in the past week.