Pirates of the Red Sea

Dumping of waste in shores and seas has always been a problem for environmentalists, and continues to be a problem today.

In Somalia however, this problem is being taken care of well with self-proclaimed ‘coast-guards’, equipped heavily like in the Black Hawk Down film.

They are young men who patrol the coast of Somali in speedboats armed with machine guns. Hijacking ships, asking for incredibly high ransom fees and keeping all the money to themselves.

Inspired by Pirates of the Caribbean perhaps, who vigorously sail the oceans of the world for riches, these Somali fishermen, turned pirates are the modern day Jack Sparrows, driven by huge lump-sums and don’t intend to stop anytime soon.

In reality however, they are men who live in a war-torn and lawless nation and survive by any means necessary. When large ships sail through the Somali coast, and dump tons of waste, they can’t expect to get away with it. Matter of fact, they can’t get away without some altercation or confrontation.

Condemned by the media and global leaders, the pirates are laughing off such displeasure as they cash in sums that Hollywood stars would get after a few Grammy awards.

What these ‘pirates’ are doing is not entirely pleasant. Causing havoc within the oil market due to the hijacking of a Saudi oil tanker recently, as well as ‘threatening one of the world’s busiest shipping routes’.

While Somali pirates own modern technology and weapons, commercial ships are virtually unarmed, which make them easy targets.

What people fail to understand is that these coastguards behaviour is a consequence of ships dumping and fishing illegally in Somalia’s waters. These men are not outlaws; they do not kill innocent people.

The rise of piracy on the coast of Somali and the Indian Ocean has increased since Somalia's civil war in 1991, where fishermen turned in their fishing nets for machine guns, as they began losing their livelihoods.

"Illegal fishing is the root cause of the piracy problem", claims a Garowe resident, where the pirates "call themselves coastguards." Surely this cannot continue for long as a global message has been sent out by recent actions of the pirates.

Whoever continues to dump waste illegally will simply have to pay the price. Being ungovernable, in the north east region of the country, these pirates are practically the law, acting as regulators.

Fashioning a multi-million dollar business, these pirates have found their new livelihood. "Somalia's fishing industry has collapsed in the last 15 years and its waters are being heavily fished by European, Asian and African ships".

How ironic as Somalia’s coast sees less traffic now and ships are advised to stay 200 miles away. I wonder for how long, before this will end up in some sort of battle to make the coast of Somalia and nearby safer.

Very entertaining for audiences to see these men who go out action-packed and armed patrolling such a massive area of sea in little speedboats, abducting ships who can be spotted from the country side, and making money out of this.

The zealous atmosphere of the pirates in their pursuit or moment of attack definatly brings laughter to me. A Hollywood remake of the Pirates of the Caribbeans to the Somali version would be hysterical.

Well since Barack Obama became the new-elect President of the United States, anything is possible!