Piracy effect: Govt asks vessels to be off Somalian waters

In the wake of hijacking of Indian vessels off the Somalian coast with over 110 Indians on board, government has issued a warning to mechanised sailing vessels about the dangers in those waters, particularly along the sea lines of Salalah and Male.

In the wake of hijacking of Indian vessels off the Somalian coast with over 110 Indians on board, government has issued a warning to mechanised sailing vessels (dhows) about the dangers in those waters, particularly along the sea lines of Salalah and Male.

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"All owners/operators of Dhows are...to take note of this maritime security advisory and desist from operating in waters south or west of line joining Salalah and Male (around Somalia region) which has been prohibited for trading," a notification issued by Direcotrate General of Shipping office said.

It said that during the last few months, Dhows have been the preferred preys of the pirates.

The reasons for this are that Dhows are easy to seize, the ransom paid is considerable and Dhows can be used as mother ship to operate further away from the coast, the advisory said.

Also, dhows are more difficult to track than other ships because they do not have the requisite technical equipment and normally the piracy monitoring agencies do not even know that the Dhow is hijacked.

Many of these agencies lack the information concerning the Dhow traffic/trading along the east coast of Africa, it said.

The advisory was issued in the wake of Somali pirates seizing eight cargo vessels with about 110 Indians on board during the last few days.