Somali pirates seize Spanish tuna fishing boat

Somali pirates seize Spanish tuna fishing boat

Friday, October 02, 2009

MADRID (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.

Source: Reuters, Oct 02, 2009