Heavily subsidized Chinese and Taiwanese vessels are aggressively expanding their reach, said Graham Southwick, the president of the Fiji Tuna Boat Owners Association. Violence among fishing boats is widespread and getting worse. From the Mediterranean to offshore Australia to the Black Sea, human traffickers carrying refugees and migrants sometimes ram competitors’ boats or deliberately sink their own ships to get rid of their illicit passengers or force a rescue. Countries are racing one another to map and lay claim to untapped oil, gas or other mineral resources deep in the ocean, sparking clashes and boat burnings. Off the coast of Somalia, United Nations officials say, some pirates who used to target bigger ships have transitioned into “security” work on board foreign and local fishing vessels, fending off armed attacks, but also firing on rivals to scare them away. Nigerian marine police officers routinely work in concert with fuel thieves, according to maritime insurance investigators.
Though pirate attacks on large container ships, like that depicted in the film “Captain Phillips,” have dropped sharply over the past several years, other forms of violence remain pervasive.Īrmed gangs run protection rackets requiring ship captains to pay for safe passage in the Bay of Bengal near Bangladesh. Guards on board wait, sometimes for months in decrepit conditions, for their next deployment. The vessels - part storage depot, part bunkhouse - are positioned in high-risk areas of international waters and house hundreds of assault rifles, small arms and ammunition. Guns and guards at sea are now so ubiquitous that a niche industry of floating armories has emerged. Many merchant vessels hired private security starting in 2008 as pirates began operating across larger expanses of the ocean, outstripping governments’ policing capacities.