Piracy is believed to have originated around 2,000 years ago. Pirates would constantly barrage the trading routes of Ancient Greece. While it began sometime ago, the original rise of piracy began to subside when nations began to develop Navies. It really came to fruition between 1620 and 1720, which is known as the golden age of piracy. However, once again coinciding with the rise of navies, pirates began to fall from power roughly around the middle part of the 19th century.
Modern day piracy began during the late 20th/early 21st century and takes place primarily in Africa, specifically off the coasts of Somalia. The Somalia Democratic Republic fell in 1991 and, because of the collapse, civil war broke out. Lawlessness broke out as well, especially along the coastlines. Other nations would come in and either dump toxic waste, poach for natural resources, or simply destroy Somali ships. Fisherman and other natives of the country pleaded for international help, but they received none. In retaliation, they began to attack the ships that would try and ruin their livelihood. However, this evolved from merely a defensive reaction to attacking for profit, thus beginning the modern day age of piracy.
Pirates have ravaged through the Somalia coastlines since the beginning of the 21st century. Since 2000, Somali pirate attacks have cost the world somewhere between $6 billion and $12 billion. 2010 and 2011 especially were successful years for the sea bandits. In 2010, all attacks and lost materials considered, pirates were estimated at making a profit of over $200 million during the year alone. Also, in 2011, pirates attacked over 237 vessels. A response was needed for all these pirate attacks and, luckily, a philosophy called counter-piracy was created.
The successful year for pirates in 2011 was enough for, not only African nations, but nations across the eastern hemisphere. They began to respond in multiple ways including warships, drones, and private contactors. These responses proved successful, as pirate attacks during the 2014 year dropped all the way down to seven.
Because of the expensive nature of these defense strategies, companies are searching for ways to bring the cost down but keep the same effectiveness. A company named Matrix RSS is developing a 360-degree angle scanner system. The Matrix system would replace the need for soldier lookout (According to Michael Scott, the company founder, 68 percent of successful pirate attacks are due to human error) and be able to scan the surrounding ocean for up to 16 miles. Cameras would constantly survey the waters and send panoramic display images to manned terminals in various locations.
The Matrix systems, along with many other strategies, are more along the lines of defense. A company named Juliet Marine Systems is developing a strategy that has more to do with engagement of pirate vessels. Their idea is to create a number of ships called Ghosts, which would survey troubled waters and, hopefully, scare of impending pirate attacks. Greg Sancoff, the founder of the company, believes that two or three Ghost vessels would be able to take place the number of armed battle ships across the coastlines of Africa. While the prototype for the Ghost vessel can only reach up to 30 knots, it has tremendous speed and a gas range of about 900 miles. A disconcerting issue, however, for the Ghost vessel is expenses with estimated cost for a vessel at about $10 million.
While companies continue to work hard on finding less expensive alternatives to fight piracy, there efforts are being rewarded. According to an article written by Shafaat Shahbandari, the amount of pirate attacks over the last two years has drastically dropped. In 2012, there were a mere five successful pirate attacks across the African coastline. Then, in 2014, the number of successful pirate attacks dropped all the way to two. This is a major drop off from the years 2010 and 2011, which saw 47 and 25 successful pirate attacks, respectively.
Overall, piracy has been an extremely prevalent issue since the begging of the 1990s, with an exponential rise during the turn of the 21st century. However, since the beginning of the new decade, piracy has steadily decline thanks to the ambitious companies looking to take back the African coastlines.
