Should You Be Concerned About Shipping Piracy?

Merchant vessel piracy is a concern when relying upon ocean shipping to move goods. While pirates still make for strong, exciting narratives, the truth is that maritime piracy and armed robbery are at a 22-year low. Only 180 incidents were reported in 2017. That covers more than 52,000 merchant ships that trade internationally, making millions of voyages a year.

Breaking this down further, only six vessels were hijacked. That’s 0.0001% of vessels. The safest cargo vessels are container ships. This is the result of concerted efforts to decrease piracy attacks in hot spots around the globe.

1. Monitoring is more of a focus than it has been in the past, and different shipping lines have built much better ways to communicate and notify each other of potential dangers – both when it comes to piracy and natural weather events.

2. Ship captains are also trained in evasive tactics and how to anticipate vulnerabilities to piracy. Crews have more direct training to be able to deter piracy.

3. Data has also been utilized to help countries guard against piracy. There is a better focus on using local navies and coast guards to deter it, but they still must be directed by smart data analysis. This helps countries focus their resources in the most effective ways and in the most effective places.

4. Ships from different nations also often view themselves as being on the same side. Merchant vessels from different nations have often cooperated well. Being able to provide them with training, data, and tools to do so more effectively in response to merchant vessel piracy has been very effective.

5. Port security has advanced in leaps and bounds in the last several years, encouraging a decrease in non-piracy forms of theft as well.

6. The International Maritime Organization has recently passed strict regulations about cargo container weights and reporting. This encourages accountability and better tracking, which in turn allows more efficient security use.

All told, the risk of merchant vessel piracy is at an historic low. While the piracy of ocean shipping is still a fascinating and rousing narrative that captivates our attention, the truth of the matter is that there’s less risk to maritime shipping than ever before. That holds true for the risk of both piracy and natural events. Advances in training, communication, and tools make ocean shipping safer than ever before.