KEY POINTS:
The crew of the Spanish-owned Playa de Bakio must have felt they were safe.
Fishing for tuna more than 370km off Somalia's coast last weekend, they were surely out of the pirates' range. But they had not reckoned on the "mother ship" lurking nearby.
A hijacked fishing trawler was now the pirates' base; it was towing their high-powered speedboat. The Playa, with 26 crew, including 13 Spaniards, was easy pickings for an experienced militia armed with AK-47s, rocket-propelled grenades, and ladders and grappling hooks to help them board the boat.
For the second time in a fortnight Somali pirates had captured a European-registered and crewed ship, the most lucrative prize.
The French luxury yacht Le Ponant which was hijacked on April 5 with 30 crew on board, netted a US$2 million ransom, despite the close attention of France's military.
The Playa, floating down Somalia's east coast with a Spanish frigate on its tail, fetched US$1.2 million yesterday when the pirates released the boat and its crew.
So far this year there have been 23 attacks by Somali pirates, including the 47-day hijacking of a new icebreaker tug, the Svitzer Korsakov, on its way from Europe through the Gulf of Aden towards the gas fields in far eastern Russia. The ransom paid for its release was reported to be US$1.6 million.
It is not only the frequency of the attacks off Somalia that has maritime experts deeply worried. It is the skill and daring of the pirates, some of whom call themselves "marines" or "eco-warriors" and claim to be protecting the country's maritime resources from foreign exploitation.
Until five years ago, captains were advised to stay at least 80km away from Somalia's coastline. A spate of hijackings led to a doubling of the safety zone. Now, the recommended safe distance is 320km, but the Playa attack shows even that is no guarantee of safety. With the large ransoms allowing the pirates to buy faster boats, and more sophisticated GPS systems, they can strike even in rough waters several hundred kilometres out to sea.
The surge in attacks coincides with the worst unrest in Somalia since the early 90s - the last time the country had a functioning government. Insurgents are battling Ethiopian troops who toppled an Islamist authority from power in December 2006.
Andrew Mwangura, head of the Mombasa-based Seafarers' Assistance Programme, and one of the foremost experts on Somali piracy, says that there are five main pirate groups operating, sometimes together.
"Most of them are linked to warlords," he said. "And the warlords are linked to the Transitional Federal Government all the way to the top."
Monitoring Somalia's 3025km coastline, the longest in Africa, is no simple task. For several years, a joint US-European naval unit has patrolled the region, which is on the trade route between the Mediterranean, eastern Africa and Asia, in an attempt to discourage attacks and keep an eye out for terrorists. But the bandits simply shifted their bases north to the semi-autonomous Puntland region.
One-off military operations are ineffective deterrents, say experts. Piracy is simply too profitable.
A gunman on a pirate ship typically earns between US$10,000 and US$30,000 for a year's work - a fortune in Somalia. Those bankrolling the attacks from bases in the UAE or Kenya, and sometimes as far afield as Canada, London and Hong Kong, can net several million dollars from a single strike, depending on the nationality of the ship-owner, the origins and gender of the crew, the cargo and the age of the boat.
"Once the pirates' bosses have the ship's name they immediately use the internet to research how much money they can make," said Mwangura. "These guys really know what they are doing."
Most owners pay up quickly and the crews are seldom harmed. When older, less valuable trawlers, often from Taiwan or China, are captured, the demand is not cash but the temporary use of the boat. The owners promise not to report their vessel missing, and it becomes a temporary "mother ship". Few vessels are considered off-limits. In the past, pirates have attacked a cruise liner, as well several cargo ships chartered by the UN World Food Programme containing food aid meant for Somalis.
But as bizarre as it sounds, there is some truth in the pirates' claim that they are acting as a coastguard. Under international law, a country's "exclusive economic zone" - the area over which it has sole rights to exploit the marine and mineral resources - extends 200 nautical miles out to sea. Foreign ships are allowed to pass through these waters, but not to fish without a permit.
Yet at any one time there are up to 500 foreign-registered boats fishing in Somalia's rich waters, according to the Seafarers' Assistance Programme.
European boats catch tuna or shrimp, vessels from the Far East catch sharks for their fins. Almost all are fishing illegally. Often, pirate attacks are not even reported to maritime authorities: the ransoms paid are regarded as legitimate fines, both by the pirates and the ship-owners.
"One way to stop the piracy is to stop the illegal fishing," said Mwangura. "That way there will be nowhere for the pirates to hide."
A RUM HISTORY
BOOMING BUSINESS
* US$2 million ($2.55 million) ransom, Le Ponant, France
* US$1.5 million ransom, Playa de Bakio, Spain
* US$1.6 million ransom, Svitzer Korsakov, St Vincent and the Grenadines
CURSE OF THE SEAS
* 31 attacks or attempted attacks off Somalia last year
* 23 attacks this year
* 49 attacks worldwide between January and March - up 20 per cent from the same period last year
* Nigeria, India and the Gulf of Aden other trouble spots
INFAMOUS NAMES
* William Maurice was convicted of piracy in 1241 and was the first person known to be hung, drawn and quartered
* Edward "Blackbeard" Teach and Henry Morgan were famous Caribbean pirates in the late 1600s
* Zheng Yi and his wife, Zheng Yi Sao headed 10,000 pirates in 1804
* Famous fictional pirates include Long John Silver of Treasure Island and Jack Sparrow of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.
- OBSERVER
