Ravaged Fisheries See As Motivating Somali Piracy

CHICAGO (WBBM) - A U.S. naval strategy professor says there's never any excuse for Piracy but adds it does help to understand reasons behind Somali behavior which has seen the Sirius Star Supertanker being held for $25 million ransom.

Professor Derrick Reveron at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, R.I. says the tenfold increase in piracy coincides with total depletion of Somali fishing stocks by illegal European and Asian fishing operations.

Reveron received his PhD in Political Science here at the University of Illinois in Chicago.  He says, in Somalia, you basically have a group of  fishermen who turned to hijacking passing ships when their fish and their means of making a living were wiped out.

Reveron says the pirates have so far collected $30 million in ransoms.  He says the amount of fisheries depletion off Somalia carries an estimated price tag around $300 million.

Reveron says Somali pirates hijacked four ships four years ago, and so far this year have captured 90 ships. He says clearly the pirates are in it for the cash, not the cargo.

Asked about solutions to the Piracy problem, Reveron said it will take several efforts at the same time:

1.  Tactical defense against piracy, possibly including an amphibious assault,
2.  Nation building to see that a stable government is installed in the war torn country
3.  Efforts to see that the fishermen turned pirates can resume life as fishermen by protecting sea life from illegal overfishing by Europeans and Asians.

Reveron says a frontal assault would be difficult, as difficult as wading ashore in South America, identifying and arresting a well-protected drug lord.

He also said there is a "Blackhawk Down" syndrome which discourages military officers from doing anything that might end up like the book by the same name which ended with American helicopter crewmen shot down, killed and dragged through the streets of Mogadishu.