From here at tunaseiners.com we have been giving meaningful coverage to various events and tuna industry news at regional and global level and today we can only express our grave concern about the events happening in the Indian Ocean where it has become almost a custom abduction of merchant vessels and more recently the fishing boats.
The specific case of ALAKRANA of course that fills us with deep regret, 36 crew members abducted, deprived of their liberty arbitrarily and therefore ashore worried about what might happen to their head of the family and what might happen with the support economic of those 36 homes, of those children and wives who depend on these proud tuna fishermen detained while working by irresponsible criminals.
The French government has a position as to how to safeguard the safety of the tuna vessels under its flag, the Spanish government has another position something different, right now they don’t know if maintain the ships security with navy marines or allow the private armed guard aboard are viable alternatives and safe remedy to this situation, what we do know is that they must take immediate action and eradicate this problem permanently.
The social conditions that make these Somali offend in this way could be “understandable to them” we have no doubt that the job opportunities and development in Somalia should be very limited and to this we add the predisposition to commit crimes that have these “modern pirates” the result is we are seeing: insecurity at sea for the merchant and fishing vessels, as if things were not difficult enough in the fisheries of the world.
The social reality in those places is certainly very different from our reality on this side of the world, ie the problem in the Indian Ocean as seen from here in the Eastern Pacific Ocean can be a bit “distorted” in the sense that these populations have countless problems but nothing, absolutely nothing is an excuse to commit crime and deprive of liberty of these tuna fishermen.
We agree with the INTERATUN position regarding to do what is necessary to solve this particular problem of ALAKRANA and eradicate once and for all this practice of modern piracy, however we believe that paying a ransom rather than solve the problem, increases it because we get into these criminals game, we think the solution is complex but should be a sum of both military and political actions that are restricting the space to these lawless groups, actions that limit and discourage completely these predatory intentions, the very specific characteristics of the fishing, the constant movement of tunas, prevent a clustering in the safety zones as suggested by those unaware of the fishing practices, where the cunning, the nose of the fisherman to find fishing areas to load their holds these facts encouraged them to find fish in a scattered fashion, the solution we believe there should be more in ports, coasts and beaches at sea, a blockade of the usual refuge of the pirates by a naval force should reflect these effects in a substantial decrease or complete cease of these harmful incidents to commercial shipping and fishing for tuna in the area.
In any case we still see the authorities and owners seeking viable solutions for ALAKRANA and unwanted future similar cases, ie the authorities and the owners should “stick up” in defense of their precious crew, a key part in which underlying the great Spanish canning industry, European and world in general.
Meanwhile we continue faithfully covering the cited facts expecting to see a speedy resolution without loss of life especially without the loss of the innocent victims of these criminal acts.
From here at tunaseiners.com we accompany the innocent actors in this modern tragedy and their families and friends back in Spain.
With appreciation always
Juan Mora Cerdas
