Because of the grave financial and economic crisis, the new US administration limits the various overseas adventures and, while focusing on Afghanistan, they plan on leaving Iraq in 2010. This does not bode well with the militaristic plans of a small group of paranoid minds who would enjoy greatly an environmental catastrophe following an amphibious operation against the Somali pirates around the Horn of Africa. However, as it happens, they will have to wait until another time. Minor events took place in the wider Horn of Africa region after the release of MV FAINA. The details are given in a new series of reports issued by Ecoterra that I herewith publish integrally.

Ecoterra Intl. – SMCM (Somali Marine & Coastal Monitor) Part I

Ecoterra International – Update & Media Release

2009-02-08 12h55:13 UTC

EA Illegal Fishing and Dumping Hotline: +254-714-747090 (confidentiality guaranteed) – email: somalia@ecoterra.net

EA Seafarers Assistance Programme Emergency Helpline: +254-738-497979

The Chinese fishing vessel F/V TIAN YU 8 has been released yesterday afternoon at 16h30 local time after a release-money drop, local marine observers reported yesterday. Confirmation was received an hour ago from the Chinese Authorities. All 24 crew consisting of 15 mainland Chinese, four Vietnamese, three Filipinos, one Taiwanese and one Japanese fishing officer are said to be safe and sound, while one of the captors had died on board due to illness and missing treatment. The illegal fishing vessel was captured on 13. November 2008 in Southern Somali waters with 53 tonnes of tuna, 25 to of lobster and 35 to of shark-fins as well as illegal ivory on board. While the vessel first was kept near Koiyama Island in Southern Somalia, it then started an Odyssey, because the proposed and possible legal prosecution faced difficulties from the Islamic Courts in Kismayo and Merka. The captors took the ship at one time up to Garcaad (north of Eyl in Puntland) but then arranged for the release near Harardheere. The illegally harvested marine products were sold locally and the vessel released against a substantial amount. Previously the vessel had taken supplies from Mombassa, but it is believed that it was operating with a group of vessels from the Seychelles. It first had been reported as fishing in Kenyan waters, but so far no confirmation for any legal operation in the area could be obtained. The waters off Somalia are targeted since years by an armada of illegally fishing vessels from mainly Far East as well as European countries.

Seychelles: a pirate hub

The Indian Ocean and fugitive paradise of the Seychelles turns more and more into an illegal fisheries hub. Mahe now even fights for the defence of pirate ships. The International Maritime Tribunal for the law of the sea in Hamburg (Germany) was on December 8 hearing a submission filed by the Seychelles government against France which has demanded FRF 54 million in compensation from a Spanish ship owner whose vessel is registered on the Seychelles to return his ship seized while it was allegedly fishing illegally in France’s TAAF (Terres Australes et antartiques francaises, Southern and Antarctic Territories) waters.

Ecoterra Intl. – SMCM (Somali Marine & Coastal Monitor) Part II

Ecoterra International – Update & Media Release

2009-02-12 19h40:15 UTC

EA Illegal Fishing and Dumping Hotline: +254-714-747090 (confidentiality guaranteed) – email: somalia@ecoterra.net

EA Seafarers Assistance Programme Emergency Helpline: +254-738-497979

MT CHEMSTAR VENUS, sea-jacked on 15. November 2008 was released this evening. Last minute conflicts among the pirates as well as between the captors of the vessel and the owner could be solved. The last of her captors left around 22h30 local time (19h30 UTC) after having received a ransom delivered by tug-boat. The Japanese owned chemical and oil products tanker under flag of convenience from Panama, had been seized by armed pirates in the Gulf of Aden and was held together with its unharmed 23 crew of 18 Filipino and 5 South-Korean ever since near Eyl at the Indian Ocean coast of the breakaway republic of Puntland in North-East Somalia. Seafarer Roger Arroyo, the father of a daughter who has cancer and needs an urgent bone-marrow transfer to combat her Leukemia, therefore is also free and safe and will be able to fly back to his daughter and family with highest priority as soon as the vessel docks at its next harbour. The tanker carries 20,000 tonnes of oil products. Reluctance from the side of IINO MARINE, the owner-manager on the one side and an aggressive and ignorant gang of pirates who often where in disagreement also with their backers had prolonged the negotiations for the release.

MV FAINA, the ill-fated weapons transporter owned by the Israeli-Ukrainian Vadim Alperin, one week after her release finally reached Mombassa harbour in Kenya under US naval guard, which usually would only be a 2-3 days trip away from her place of release near Hobyo in Somalia. The public does not really believe that the voyage had to take so long due to engine problems but think that the time-delay was required to spin numerous stories as well as to allow for preparations to stage a public welcome in Kenya derailing the public attention from the crucial questions of the 134 day long hostage saga as well as the true destination of the weapons comprising of 33 ex-Sowjet T-72 battle tanks with 125mm ammunition reportedly of the 3BM-32 type, which contains a penetrator made from depleted uranium. Neither the World Health Organization or UNEP nor IAEA, the three organizations tasked with surveillance of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, to which Kenya is a signatory, showed up to inspect the ammunition. Ukrainian Human Rights Ombudswoman and member of Parliament, who arrived with a special flight from Ukraine in Mombassa is gathering detailed information concerning the saga, which is subjected to investigations by parliamentary committees in Kenya and Ukraine as well as in the flag-state of the vessel Belize.

With the latest captures and releases now still at least 11 foreign vessels with a total of 173 crew members accounted for (of which 34 are Filipinos) are held in Somali waters and are monitored on our actual case-list, while several other cases of ships, which were observed off the coast of Somalia and have been reported or had reportedly disappeared without trace or information, are still being followed. Over 134 incidences (including attempted attacks, averted attacks and successful sea-jackings) have been recorded for 2008 with 49 fully documented, factual sea-jacking cases (for Somalia, incl. the presently held) and the mistaken sinking of one vessel by a naval force. For 2009 the account stands at 17 averted or abandoned attacks and 6 sea-jackings on the Somali/Yemeni pirate side as well as one wrongful attack by friendly fire on the side of the naval forces. Mystery pirate mother-vessels Athena/Arena and Burum Ocean as well as not fully documented cases of absconded vessels are not listed in the sea-jack count until clarification. Several other vessels with unclear fate (also not in the actual count), who were reported missing over the last ten years in this area, are still kept on our watch-list, though in some cases it is presumed that they sunk due to bad weather or being unfit to sail. In the last four years, 22 missing ships have been traced back with different names, flags and superstructures.

Dutch authorities confirmed Tuesday they had taken custody of five suspected Somali pirates rescued off the east African coast after they allegedly tried to ambush a Dutch vessel in January, dpa reports. The five suspected pirates were arrested inside the Yemeni EEZ by the Danish navy after the boat under attack fired flares back at the Somalis’ vessel, causing it to catch fire and the men to ditch into the sea. The Danish patrol boat had also fired warning shots at the suspected pirate skiff. Spokesman Wim de Bruin of the Dutch national public prosecutor’s office in Rotterdam told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa the suspects, who were handed over in Bahrain, had now arrived in the Netherlands. De Bruin said that the five will first go before a judge on Wednesday. ‘The five are suspected of maritime robbery,’ De Bruin said, ‘which can lead to a maximum sentence of 9-12 years under Dutch law.’ A later panel of three judges will later rule on how long the men can be held whilst the Dutch public prosecutor prepares its case against them. The Danish navy vessel Absalon has been deployed in the waters off Somalia since early September, patrolling international shipping lanes in the region, following a spate of high-profile piracy attacks. The Absalon, which had been used to hold the five men in custody without being formally charged by the Danish Government, is now returning to the Gulf of Aden to resume patrols, according to commanding officer Dan Termansen. The January alleged attack took place against MV SAMANYOLU, registered in the Dutch Antilles – a colony of the Netherlands. A helicopter from the Danish warship Absalon fired warning shots at the pirates’ vessel. The crew of the ship under attack also fired emergency flares which caused the pirate craft to catch fire, forcing the five men to jump into the sea. The crew of the Absalon then rescued the suspected pirates from the sea and later sank the burning vessel to prevent possible danger to other ships.

You wonder why every fish poacher on earth tries to get his hands on Tuna from Somalia? Why they risk being arrested or even face death? The answer is very clear: The low-mercury tuna fish from the waters of the South-Western Indian Ocean and especially from Somali waters is a high priced though not high enough priced commodity in rich countries ranging from the Middle East through Europe and North America to top buyer Japan, where the mercury levels in their own fish-stock are so high that the local catch actually should be handled as toxic substance. Action against the mercury contamination especially in Asia, Europe and the US is long overdue according to UNEP’s assessments. Mercury’s impacts on the human nervous system has been known for over a century’ the Mad Hatter of Alice in Wonderland fame was so called because hat-makers used the liquid metal to strengthen brims, breathing in the poisonous fumes. Eating advisories relating to fish consumption such as tuna remain in place in many countries targeted at those at risk including pregnant mothers and babies. In Sweden, for example around 50,000 lakes have pike with mercury levels exceeding international health limits. Women of child-bearing years are advised not to eat pike, perch, burbot and eel at all, and the rest of the population only once a week.

A recent study in West Bengal found fish with mercury levels in excess of food safety limits. One study in the United States has found that about 1 in 12, or just under five million females, have mercury levels above the level considered safe by the US Environmental Protection Agency. Other potential impacts on the population include impaired thyroid and liver function, irritability, tremors, disturbances to vision and memory loss and perhaps cardiovascular problems. Scientists and the NGO Sharkproject are now also flagging yet another cause for concern – the increased consumption of shark meat in some parts of the world. By some estimates these foods contain up to 40 times more mercury than recommended food safety limits and perhaps a great deal more. “Thus prevarication and inaction over the global mercury challenge is no longer an option ‘we owe it to pregnant women and unborn children everywhere and to artisan miners and their families. We owe it to anyone who has an interest in a healthier, less polluted world,” stated Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director and this month the world’s environment ministers meeting in Nairobi, Kenya can take a landmark decision to lift a global health threat from the lives of literally hundreds of millions of people. A strategy to begin seriously dealing with the heavy metal mercury and its highly toxic compounds is to come before the UN Environment Programme’s Governing Council when it meets from 16 February. The ‘policy framework’, a result of seven years of intense discussions spearheaded by UNEP, represents the first, coordinated global effort to tackle mercury pollution.

The amphibious transport dock San Antonio, which has been the flagship for the Navy’s new anti-piracy group CTF 151 launched in January, was relieved Wednesday by the guided-missile cruiser Vella Gulf. The group, known as Combined Task Force 151, operates in the Gulf of Aden, Red Sea, Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea. Rear Adm. Terry Mc-Knight’s transfer from the San Antonio to the Vella Gulf was a regularly scheduled turnover, said Cmdr. Jane Campbell, a spokeswoman for the Navy’s 5th Fleet in Bahrain. The San Antonio left Norfolk on Aug. 28 on its first deployment, which was interrupted by malfunctions that required repairs in a shipyard in Bahrain. The Vella Gulf’s commanding officer, Capt. Mark Genung, said the ship’s SH-60B Seahawk helicopters give it an “unparalleled” ability to spot possible pirate ships.