Aye, Matey - Who Will Win The War Against Pirates?

Maritime piracy is at an all-time high, and it is costing businesses and ultimately consumers. Watchdog group the International Maritime Bureau reports that worldwide pirate attacks in the first nine months of 2011 reached a record high of 352 attacks and involved 625 people being taken hostage.

But another risk factor in maritime piracy is the cost of doing business. A report from U.K. think tank Chatham House found that the cost of re-routing ships to avoid risky waters costs companies as much as $3 billion annually, while the head of the World Shipping Council put maritime piracy's total worldwide cost to companies as high as $8 billion. 

But countering this global issue has not had a clear answer, and the tactics for combating piracy - especially in the waters surrounding Somalia, where more than half of the incidences occur - is controversial. 

On one hand, the shipping industry tends to view paying ransom as the most efficient way to deal with piracy. Quick payment usually results in the quick release of traumatized seafarers being held hostage, as well as the rapid release of cargo being delayed - not to mention minimizing the negative public relations impact. It can be viewed simply the cost of doing business, and a low-risk one at that, as less than 0.3 percent of ships will be hijacked, according to non-governmental organization One Earth Future, a global-governance think tank. After all, anti-ransom measures have resulted in navies around the world patrolling the waters off Somalia at a cost of $1.5 billion annually - compared with the $5 million paid into the U.N.'s anti-piracy trust fund. 

But governments - which typically make paying ransoms illegal - and global policy experts urge a longer-view approach. 

In a New York Times op-ed, Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the UN's office of drugs and crime, advocated for a long-term tactic including continued patrolling of pirated waters and bringing suspected pirates to trial within the region of the crime. He also calls for international assistance to stem the economic, judicial and social unrest that drives pirating. Despite recent sentencing of six British men for paying ransoms for a vessel held hostage in Somalia, the International Chamber of Shipping, which represents over 80 percent of the world's merchant fleet, said that ship owners will likely continue to pay high ransoms to free their vessels and crews. 

Meanwhile shipping operators and insurers advocate for the use of armed guards - a practice that is governed by the nation in which a given vessel is registered. The United States and the U.K. at the end of last year passed laws permitting the use of armed guards on some vessels, and the International Chamber of Shipping supports the practice. But armed guards as a pirate deterrent remains a hot-button sub-point in the growing maritime piracy problem.