Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Squeezed by illegal fishing, Somalis return to piracy
Fears resurface after hijacking
EYL, Somalia — Struggling to push his small fishing boat out to sea, Hassan Yasin grumbles over what he and other coastal Somalis call a threat to their way of life: harassment by illegal fishermen and attacks by large foreign trawlers.
“They will either shoot us on sight or destroy our boats,” the 27-year-old man said, yanking on a rope to start the groaning engine. Along the seashore are sandfilled boats that fishermen say belong to colleagues who abandoned the work because of the dangers involved.
The recent hijacking of a Comoros-flagged oil tanker off Somalia’s northern coast surprised the international shipping community after several years without a pirate attack on a large commercial vessel there. Naval patrols by NATO members and other countries like China had calmed the crucial global trade route that once saw hundreds of attacks.
But people in this sleepy village saw something like this coming.
Some are former pirates themselves who quit in recent years as the international pressure grew and armed guards appeared on cargo ships. They turned to fishing but now say they’re the ones being targeted at sea.
In recent years, local officials have warned that rampant fishing by foreign trawlers was destroying the livelihoods of coastal communities, stoking fears of a return of piracy as a way to make money.
They have blamed Yemeni, Chinese, Indian, Iranian and Djibouti-flagged fishing boats and trawlers.
“The illegal fishing is a very serious problem. Fishing has declined, equipment was confiscated and they destroyed our livelihoods and properties,” said Aisha Ahmed, a fish dealer.
The chairman of the fishermen’s association, Mohamed Saeed, said frustrations are growing. “They have no choice now but to fight,” he said.
The hijacked oil tanker was anchored Tuesday off the town of Alula after Monday’s hijacking, said Salad Nur, a local elder. He said young fishermen, including former pirates, had gone searching for a foreign ship to seize out of frustration.
“Foreign fishermen destroyed their livelihoods and deprived them of proper fishing,” he said.
But the armed Somali pirates released the ship and its crew without conditions Thursday night.
Security official Ahmed Mohamed said the pirates disembarked the ship, which was heading to Bossaso port, the region’s commercial hub, with its eight Sri Lankan crew members aboard. The pirates were not arrested and were given safe passage to leave once they disembarked, he said.
The pirates told authorities that the only reason they seized the ship was in protest of the illegal fishing in the area that has threatened livelihoods, Mohamed said.
Illegal fishing needs addressing, said John Steed, the director of Oceans Beyond Piracy. “It’s an aggressive business and in some cases international fleets pressure, even attack, local fisherman, which breeds resentment,” he wrote in an email.
“We have a famine and food is short. Fish is one answer,” he said, referring to the drought that Somalia recently declared a national disaster. “Fishing communities are angry and out-ofwork fishermen have become — and are — pirates.”
But illegal fishing is no excuse for piracy, Steed said. He called the hijacking an “opportunity target.”
The United Nations warned in October that the situation was fragile and that Somali pirates “possess the intent and capability to resume attacks.”
In December, NATO ended its anti-piracy mission off Somalia’s waters.
Abdirizak Mohamed Ahmed, director of the AntiPiracy Agency in northern Somalia’s semiautonomous state of Puntland, said he wasn’t surprised by the recent hijacking.
Ahmed said fake fishing licenses issued to foreign fishermen and lenient enforcement of regulations by local authorities are major factors in the increase of illegal fishing.
Local fishermen also have reported incidents of foreign fishermen opening fire at them or robbing them of their catches before being chased away.
“It’s matter of life and death. Now we have to fight at any cost,” said Bile Hussein, a Somali pirate commander.