From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Fri Oct 02 2009 - 14:18:28 EDT
Somali pirates seize Spanish tuna fishing boat
Fri Oct 2, 2009 2:37pm GMT
* Pirates are taking Basque boat to pirate haven
* Same boat, carrying 36 crew, avoided hijack days ago
(Adds nationalities of crew, hijack location, background)
MADRID, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Somali pirates hijacked a Spanish tuna fishing
boat in the Indian Ocean, the regional government of the Basque Country and
a pirate spokesman said on Friday.
European military aircraft flew over the "Alakrana" when it failed to make a
routine call and saw armed men aboard, a spokesman for the Basque government
said.
A source in the pirate haven of Haradheere north of the Somali capital
Mogadishu confirmed the boat had been seized.
"Our friends from Kismayu hijacked a fishing boat with its crew late last
night," pirate Hassan told Reuters by phone. "They are on the way to
Haradheere. No warship can stop us."
The Alakrana, which has a crew of 36 and a home port in the Basque Country,
featured in Spanish media reports last week when its captain described how
bad weather had helped his vessel escape a previous pirate attack.
Pirate attacks have continued despite patrols by foreign navies off the
lawless Horn of Africa state. Monsoon rains over the past few months curbed
the number of attacks but they have now started to pick up again.
The Seychelles coast guard said the ship was seized 400 nautical miles (740
km) northwest of Mahe, the largest and most developed island in the
archipelago, where many French and Spanish tuna fishing vessels are based.
Tuna catches in the southwestern Indian Ocean fell by as much as 30 percent
last year as pirates blocked access to some of the world's richest Yellowfin
tuna waters off Somalia.
The coast guard said the majority of the crew were Spanish and one was from
the Seychelles. It said other crew members were from Indonesia, Ivory Coast,
Madagascar and Senegal.
"The high level committee responsible for piracy are in contact with the
vessel owners and have already established contact with other anti-piracy
forces in the region for a response to the incident," it said in a
statement.
Gangs from Somalia -- some made up of former fishermen angered by the
presence of foreign fishing boats in their waters -- have made tens of
millions of dollars in ransoms by seizing boats in shipping lanes linking
Europe to Asia.
Pirates attacked tuna boats at least three times last year, leading to one
ransom payment of more than $1 million.
The tuna industry is worth up to $6 billion across the Indian Ocean region.
In July, France deployed 30 marines aboard its tuna fleet to fend off
pirates. [ID:nL9711262] (Additional reporting by Abdi Guled in Mogadishu and
Richard Lough in Antananarivo) (Reporting by Emma Pinedo and Inmaculada
Sanz; writing by Jason Webb; editing by David Clarke and Elizabeth
Fullerton)
C Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved
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