Piracy is still an unacceptable reality

HERE we go again. New year, new attacks on shipping and crews.

In the worst incident so far, gunmen abducted eight crew from a Malaysia-registered fishing trawler off Sabah, according to the Singapore-based Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP) Information Sharing Centre (ISC). At the time of writing, three of the crew had been recovered safely but the authorities were still trying to rescue the others.

Meanwhile there have already this year been attacks on ships closer to home, in the Singapore Strait. ISC reports that, on Jan 8, 2020 there was an attempt to board a tanker, the British Mariner, while under way in the eastbound lane of the Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS).