I wonder how much of a threat piracy really is?
According to this report:
Piracy has flourished off the coast of Somalia, which has not had an effective government for two decades. While piracy in the Indian Ocean has taken place for a number of years close to the Somali coast, "in 2008 we saw a very marked and rapid shift into the Gulf of Aden, where Somali pirates were attacking and hijacking vessels very, very regularly," Cyrus Mody said (an official with the International Maritime Bureau in London).
International navies combating piracy have been fairly successful in setting up a patrolled transit corridor through the Gulf of Aden, Mody and Fox said. But the pirates' activities then shifted into the southern Red Sea, Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea area, Mody said.
In addition, there was "a very large increase" in pirate attacks between 2008 and 2009, although the increase did not continue into 2010. Mody said. He noted that in the first few months of 2010, virtually no pirate hijackings were reported. So far in 2011, "we have already seen more than 50 attacks carried out," he said. "From 2008, what we've seen is they have evolved ... and increased their capabilities."
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/02/22/somalia.us.yacht/index.html?hpt=C1
