The Costanzi Report on Piracy and Maritime security recorded thirty-five attacks at sea for the first quarter of 2015 as well as ten foiled attacks or reported suspicious approaches, for a total of forty-four reported incidents.
The geographical pattern follows closely the trend that we outlined in a recent article. Piracy attacks concentrate in three areas: the Gulf of Aden, where they are typically foiled by navies or armed security groups, the Gulf of Guinea, where they are all of very serious nature, and South East Asia, where they are of a petty nature in close proximity of the Singapore Strait and become more serious toward deeper waters.
The Costanzi Report registered 32 attacks with major consequences in the seven months between October 2014 and April 2015. We classify as attacks with major consequences those that resulted in hijacking, stealing of large amounts of cargo, kidnapping, serious wounding and/or killing of seafarers.
An analysis of such attacks by month and geographical area shows that there are two main regions where the number of major attacks has been steadily high: Southeast Asia - with the exclusion of the Singapore Strait, where many attacks are registered but are all of a petty nature - and the Gulf of Guinea.
Occasional major attacks occur in the Bay of Bengal, were fisherman are often shot at or even taken hostage. A major attack occurred in the month of March off the coast of Somalia, where Iranian fisherman involved in illegal fishing were attacked and kidnapped by pirates. Notably, this is the first attack off the Somali coast resulting in kidnapping in three years. A major attack occurred in the Caribbean as well, where a fisherman was killed in Lake Maracaibo.
