The human cost

Pirate attacks offshore from Somalia are costing ever greater sums. Liz Booth looks at two recent reports from Oceans Beyond Piracy, the first considering the human cost and the second looking at the economic costs before looking at the latest figures on piracy.

The human cost

Assessing crimes committed by pirates in 2011 on crews transiting the high risk area, the report looks at seafarers on ships that were fired upon, boarded, or hijacked seafarers taken hostage in 2010 but still held in 2011; sailors aboard personal yachts attacked by pirates and people on shore taken by pirates, including humanitarian aid workers and tourists kidnapped and held for ransom.