Piracy in Somalia Somalia has been dealing with piracy for decades now. Piracy is a major problem in today’s waters, but what exactly is piracy? Piracy is the practice of attacking and robbing ships at sea. The piracy epidemic in Somalia is not going to go away overnight. Piracy in Somalia has drastically affected everything about the country. Piracy might now sound like a whole lot of a big deal, but the real fact is, it is a big deal. Solving such an issue as piracy is not an easy task by any means. To solve any issue one must understand the effects of the issue. The effect of Somalian piracy on the shores of Somalia can be fully understood, but it takes, time, patience and hard work. The Somalian pirates have caused untold mayhem on Somalia’s environment, economy people, and the Government One of the biggest thing affected by the piracy in Somalia is the environment. Somali pirates are linked to illegal fishing and toxic waste dumping. As Saeed Shabazz puts it. Over fishing is a huge problem for Somalia right now. Not only is it a problem for them but also for the world. Since there is over fishing the fish populations in that area are deplenishing. The fish are not given enough time to reproduce causing less fish. Thus the effect of that is less food all around, which causes the Somalian pirates to move all along the shores of Somalia depleting the resources in the sea. Toxic waste dumping by the pirates in the sea is also another major problem. The waste the pirates dump into the sea consists of plastic, chemicals, oil, and other pollutants. These such pollutants also contribute to the contamination of the fish and water. Plastic as it is known is one of the worst wastes for the ocean. Plastic does not break down very well and takes decades to fully break down to the point of no harm. The fact that most of these pirate rings hardly ever go to shore unless to restock on supplies, shows us all their waste product goes into the ocean. That covers all their trash including human body waste, all of what they do not break down or do not need any more goes into the ocean. There has even been reports of the dumping of nuclear waste. If that is the case then thousands of species in the sea will be affected. With the increase of abuse on the sea surrounding the shores of Somalia, and the increase of over fishing it could cripple the trade of fish and commerce in the area for years to come. Since the environment has been effected so much, this has taken a major toll on the economy. The piracy has driven away many tourists and has really hurt the tourist attractions in certain areas in Somalia. Many places have lost vital business; the effect of no business has caused management to lay off workers or even fire them. It has been estimated that Somalia has lost over 300 million Euros because of the lack of fish in the sea according to Brain Merchant of tree hugger. This has costs fisherman their jobs, families and homes. Lack of jobs means lack of economy growth which leads to poverty growth and an increase in crime. Since there is more crime, there are more arrest and more people ending up in jail. The rise in prison cost; with the decrease in the fish trade causes for more problems. This goes on down the chain of the economy this effect is called the “snowball effect”. All of the illegal goods are not taxed at all, so the Government is getting less money to run and function properly. The Pirates have also caused the price of everyday essentials to go up. Also with the pirates illegally trading and selling the goods they raid, and the fish they catch. Normal service for the common civilian such as hiring a cab and staying in hotels have become overpriced. With the lack of fish and other goods the pirate’s abuse and steal, it causes the cost of everyday goods in Somalia to inflate. The inflation rate in Somalia was recorded at -15.35 percent in December of 2010 according to Trading Economics. With all the damage to the economy in Somalia it will take some time to financially recover. The hijacking of merchant ships, domestic and foreign is another big thing that is affecting the price of goods. The piracy has contributed to an increase in shipping costs, and impeded delivery the delivery of food shipments. The insurance industry has also been hit hard by the activities of the Somalian pirates. The nations are spending billions of dollars to guard the Somali coastline and providing security to their ships and as well as paying ransoms for their hijacked ships. The people of Somalia have been affected greatly. Not only the people of Somalia but of other countries as well. Somali pirates are responsible for over 199 hostages, and 14 known ships. The Somalian pirates have reaped close to 160 million dollars in ransoms alone. Piracy has made the waters of eastern Africa the bane of international trade threatening sea travel in the region for oil tankers, cargo carriers, cruise ships and private boats. According to International Marine Bureau statistics more than 30 vessels with more than 700 crew members and passengers combined are being held hostage by Somali pirates. One of those hostages Judith Tebbutt was captured in 2011 while on holiday. She and her Husband were on vacation when the island they were staying at was raided by Somalian pirates. They killed her husband almost on sight and took Judith Tebbutt hostage. The Somalian pirates kept Judith for nearly 7 months before she was rescued. When Judith describe her living conditions too Kira Cochrane from “thegaurdian” she was horrified at the horrible things that had happened to her. After the nearly 7 months of being malnourished and beaten she did not even resemble herself. Judith had lost nearly all her body fat. ‘I could count my ribs. My breasts were flat, my stomach was just a fold, and my hips were sticking out.’ That is Judith’s description of her body at the time she was rescued. When she tried to shower her body was so frail she describe it as being hit with thousands of little needles. Her kidnapers were fourtunealy captured and tried. Within a short time Judith’s kidnapers were found guilty. That is just one example of how bad the Somalian captives have it. They capture their own ken as well, although they don’t usually ask for a ransom, they do use them as slaves for trading or general labor. According to Anita of One India News, there have also been many reports of the Somalian Pirates taking children and turning them into child soldiers. This sadly can be quiet common in some parts of Africa. The Somalian Government has not been very affective at preventing the work of the Somalian pirates. The Somalian Government lost around 6.9 billion in the shipping industry due to the pirates raiding parties according to reports from Accounting Forge. The Somalian Government has had a very hard time getting together the funds and a plan of action, so they looked to the UN efforts. The U.S Government has done their best to aid Somalia and get together a plan of action for them to follow up on. One of the first things the U.S government said about the Somalian piracy problem was 'Snowballing out of control’. The actions the U.S government took are as followed. (Andrew J. Shapiro U.S Department of State) They established diplomatic engagement to spur collective international action. Expanded security on the high seas through the use of naval assets to defend private vessels and to disrupt pirate attacks. The U.S government is preventing attacks by encouraging industry to take steps to protect itself, and finally debilitating the networks that support piracy operations. The U.N even went as far as assigning a task force unit to patrol the seas. The task force was unit 151 a multinational task force charged with conducting counter-piracy naval patrols in the region. The main operation of this task force will focus on two major areas the Gulf of Aden and off the eastern coast of Somalia. (Andrew J. Shapiro U.S Department of State) On any day up to 30 vessels from as many as 20 nations are engaged in counter-piracy operations in the region. Including countries new to these kinds of effort like China India, and Japan. The U.S. and international naval forces have thwarted pirate attacks in progress, engaged pirate skiffs and successfully taken back hijacked ships during opposed boarding. The U.S. effort has helped create a safe transit corridor for commercial shipping vessels. Naval Forces Central Command has worked with partners to set up a nearly 500 mile long transit corridor through the Gulf of Aden. The transit zone is heavily patrolled by naval forces and used by some countries for convoy operation. The corridor has helped reduce the number of attacks within the transits zone but it also had had the bad side effect of pushing the pirates out to deeper sea. For boats and trade ships the partnering Governments have set some new rules and safety regulations inn and around the Somalia area. Such as proceeding at full speed through high risk areas, employing physical barriers such as razor wire, posting additional lookout, reporting positions to military authorities, and mustering the crew inside a “citadel” or safe-room in the vessel when under attack. Now that the Nations have formulated a plan of action on the prevention of piracy there is one thing that remains, catching and detaining of the Somalian Pirates. The actions the Nations took are increase prison capacity in Somalia, develop a framework for prisoner transfer so convicted pirates serve their sentence back in their home country, and to establish a specialized piracy chamber in the national court of one or more regional states. The Piracy off the shores of Somalia does not seem to be ending any time soon. Even after all the efforts from over 20 Nations the war still rages on. Solving the problem of piracy is an issue that can be traced back to the first boat. It is an age old issue that sometimes seems like it has no real answer. The effects of piracy in Somalia can evidently be seen throughout the different avenues of the Country such as the environment, government, economy, and the people. Aside from all that there is hope and a promising future for Somalia as piracy seems to be dropping over the past few years. Security has beefed up and extra measures have been put into place. You can only put up so much defensive to prevent crime, but crime always seems to find a way. Only time will tell, if all the efforts from the Nations will have paid off or if it was all done in vain. For now one thing is sure effects on Somalia due to piracy have been very devastating and the country will be in years of recovery.