Piracy area revision
The Baltic and International Maritime Council say that the co-sponsors of Best Management Practice of Protection against Somali Piracy, version four, have agreed to a revised definition of the High Risk Area (HRA).
The changes shall take effect from 1 December 2015 to give crews and shipping companies adequate time to adapt. The HRA, defined by BMP4, will be reduced by a latitude of 15°N in the Red Sea, a latitude of 22°N in the Gulf of Oman, a longitude of 065°E on the Eastern Limit and a latitude of 5°S on the Southern Limit.
Graeme Gibbon Brooks, CEO of Dryad Maritime, said: “The message from the naval forces is unequivocal that the threat remains inactive. The re-drawing of the boundaries does reflect the criminals’ most likely course of action should the threat reconstitute.”
The announcement is a step in de-escalation that will ultimately see a shift from the widespread use of armed guards towards different, and less costly, methods of mitigating risk in the High Risk Area.
Maritime intelligence company, Dryad Maritime, welcomed the announcement as a decision that takes account of the strategic and threat context in the region.
By Alice Mason
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