In the past year, the number of ships being commandeered by Somalian Pirates has plummeted from 199 in 2011 (from January to September) to only 70 in the same period of time. This number has declined because many ships are now choosing to hire ships to escort them through the waters and many naval ships from the US, Britain, EU, Russia, China and India are now patrolling the waters to put a stop to these attacks. The main interest in doing so is because of the expensive cargo that is carried on the ships and the increase in insurance prices as a result. For example, 2010 saw the costs of these pirate raids to be totalling at almost $12 billion dollars. Now these attacks occur to only 1 in every 20 ships. The ransoms for those that have been caught can be extraordinarily high though. For example, a super sized oil tanker that was seized from South Korea in 2010 is being help hostage for almost $9 million. How ridiculous is that? In order to end piracy, officials have mentioned that they want to go after the most high ranking officials in the business. They're hoping to get these officials for such crimes as money laundering because these individuals can then be arrested in other countries.
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/2012/1030/Pirate-attacks-off-Somalia-plummet-thanks-to-navies-armed-guards
I never really thought of piracy through a dollars perspective. Crazy to think that a group of pirates can actually hold ransom a ship for almost 10 million dollars!! crazy stuff, All that money that could go to other more important things
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