Piracy and robbery are still real dangers

THE world's attention right now may be on combating coronavirus but the oceans' criminals are not heeding the "stay at home" advice. They still see merchant ships and their crews as their prey.

Warnings that the industry must not drop its guard have come from both the ICC International Maritime Bureau (IMB) and the ReCAAP Information Sharing Centre (ISC)

IMB warns that seafarers face continuing threats from pirates and armed robbers on the world's seas, and reports 47 attacks in the first three months of 2020, up from 38 in the same period last year. Pirates actually boarded 37 ships in the first quarter of 2020.