Dubai: The Security Association for the Maritime Industry (SAMI) has raised concerns about the level of piracy reporting globally, and more particularly in the Indian Ocean High Risk Area (HRA).
The concerns emerged as a result of a workshop held by SAMI in Hamburg, during which shipowner representatives and company security officers were encouraged to discuss their security concerns.
Despite a reported drop in overall attack figures, Somali piracy still poses a significant threat as criminals remain heavily armed and eager to hijack, SAMI suggested in a recent release.
SAMI claims “the curse of under reported pirate attacks or misunderstood data” are the next major issues to dog the shipping industry, and called for an urgent shake up in the way that reports are both generated, captured and promulgated.
Increasingly vessels in the High Risk Area (HRA) are subjected to incidents that appear to be co-ordinated small boat piracy approaches but, because they choose not to ultimately attack, they are not necessarily classified as piracy or a suspicious approach.
“While there are concerns about complacency and security fatigue creeping in, it is perhaps understandable when the statistics are mired in uncertainty. This makes it doubly important that shipping has proper, clear and defined data on which to make decisions,” SAMI concluded. [05/05/13]
