Dryad Maritime News

Dryad Maritime is calling on the maritime industry to develop a Standardisation Agreement (STANAG) setting minimum standards for the production of intelligence. "The threat is changing. Ship owners and operators no longer simply face a sporadic pirate threat in the Indian Ocean but are routinely deploying armed security teams to counter the threat of Water Bourne IED in the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait located between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula, and Djibouti and Eritrea in the Horn of Africa," it said in a statement. Without up to-date practical research and development supported by the expert collation of intelligence the industry will be blindsided by asymmetric threats at sea.

Somali pirates are suspected of hijacking a bulk carrier ship on one of the world's crucial trade routes, Reuters reported. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations piracy watchdog said on its website it had received a report from a vessel under attack and possibly boarded off the coast of war-ravaged Yemen. It gave no further details. However, a security source working at the Puntland Marine Police Force said the vessel was Tuvalu-flagged and is known as OS35. Graeme Gibbon-Brooks, the head of private company Dryad Maritime Intelligence, said industry sources had confirmed the hijacking. "Vessels transiting the area are advised to exercise extreme caution," UKMTO said, without giving more details.

Pirates have hijacked an Indian commercial ship off the coast of Somalia, the second attack in weeks after years of inactivity, industry and security sources said on Monday. United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), which coordinates the management of merchant ships and yachts in the Gulf of Aden area, said it had received information that a dhow en route to Bosasso from Dubai had been hijacked "in the vicinity of Socotra (Island)". A spokesman said UKMTO could not confirm the location of the vessel, which he identified as Al Kausar, or what exactly had taken place, and that investigations were continuing. "We understand Somali pirates hijacked a commercial Indian ship (and it is heading) towards Somalia shores…

Pirates have hijacked an oil tanker with eight Sri Lankan crew on board, Somali authorities said on Tuesday, the first time a commercial ship has been seized in the region since 2012. Security forces have been sent to free the Aris 13, a regional police official said late on Tuesday. "We are determined to rescue the ship and its crew. Our forces have set off to Alula. It is our duty to rescue ships hijacked by pirates and we shall rescue it," Abdirahman Mohamud Hassan, director general of Puntland’s marine police forces, told Reuters by phone. Puntland is a semi-autonomous northern region of Somalia. Alula is a port town there where pirates have taken the tanker. Experts said the ship was an easy target and ship owners were becoming lax after a long period of calm.

Unknown assailants who opened fire on a gas tanker last week off the coast of Yemen were also carrying a "substantial amount of explosives", the vessel's owner said on Thursday, and a maritime source said it may have been an attempted suicide attack. Security experts said the new details of the Oct. 25 incident would heighten concerns for shipping in the narrow Bab al-Mandab waterway at the entrance to the Red Sea, a major choke point in the world oil trade. In an initial statement last week, shipping group Teekay said its LNG (liquefied natural gas) tanker Galicia Spirit had "experienced a suspected piracy attack" but no one had managed to board it. In an update on Thursday, Teekay said it had now conducted an investigation with security experts.

Unknown assailants attacked a gas tanker off the coast of Yemen close to the Bab al-Mandab waterway in the latest flare up in an area through which much of the world's oil passes, shipping and security officials said on Wednesday. The incident, the first attack on a commercial ship since July, followed missile attacks in recent weeks on military craft, including U.S. navy vessels, which were launched from Yemen that had already raised risks for merchant shipping. Shipping group Teekay said its LNG (liquefied natural gas) tanker Galicia Spirit "experienced a suspected piracy attack whilst off the coast of Yemen" on Oct. 25. "No third parties managed to board the vessel during the incident and all crew members are safe and have been accounted for," Teekay said in a statement.

The Gulf of Guinea, South East Asia and The Indian Ocean High Risk Area (HRA) have all seen a significant reduction of reported maritime crime throughout July, August and September of this year according to Q3 analysis released today by Dryad Maritime. With the exception of the Sulu Sea, incidents of maritime crime in South East Asia are at their lowest since 2009 and in the Indian Ocean HRA there were no confirmed acts of piracy in Q3, with the last recorded incident of piracy reported on a merchant vessel in 2014. In the Gulf of Guinea and within Nigeria’s Economic Exclusion Zone (EEZ) there has been a decrease in the frequency of attacks with a total of just four attacks against commercial shipping at sea off the Niger Delta since early July…

In contrast to the substantial numbers of reported incidents across Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean in recent years, maritime crime now appears to have stabilised in these regions according to the latest Q2 maritime crime statistics released by Dryad Maritime today. There have been 34 incidents of maritime crime and piracy reported across Southeast Asia during the second quarter of 2016, taking the total for the first half of the year to 49. This is a 66% reduction for the half yearly total when compared to the first six months of 2015. However, despite the global downturn, maritime piracy in the Gulf of Guinea and Sulu Sea continues to give cause for concern with kidnap for ransom the main threat.

Today, 5th May 2016, Dryad Maritime release WxConnect, a new scalable, managed weather forecasting service for ships and fleets. The service was designed and developed by Dryad’s in-house teams and World Meteorological Organisation accredited meteorologists with significant seagoing experience. WxConnect is offered alongside Dryad’s award-winning Vessel Safety Management service to extend tangible safety and operational benefits, whilst minimising burdens for Masters and shore-based teams. In order to provide greater flexibility to clients, the forecasting tool will be offered with no subscription fee, no installation requirements and as a ‘Pay As You Go’ service, to further drive down costs for users.

Pirates have attacked the Liberian-flagged 4,360 TEU CMA CGM Turquoise, kidnapping two crew members off the coast of Nigeria, with the remainder of the crew said to be safe. Turquoise, managed by Dioryx Maritime Corp. in Greece, was stormed late on Monday as it travelled between Nigeria's commercial hub Lagos and Douala in Cameroon. According to Ghana-based antipiracy agency Maritime Trade Information Sharing Centre (MTISC-GOG), the ship  was boarded in waters about 30 nm off the coast of the Niger Delta. The captain activated the SSAS and the crew retreated to the citadel, but two were captured and kidnapped before they could enter.

With the threats facing shipping become ever more complex and diverse,  Dryad Maritime's COO, Ian Millen speaks to CSO Alliance, a global digital network dedicated to serving Company Security Officers (CSOs),  about the big threats CSOs should be focusing their attention on in 2016 and what regions they should be most concerned about from a security perspective. Maritime terrorism is obviously something that needs to be continually accessed at the moment. Currently, we [Dryad] are not as concerned as some media commentators, but this is not to say our evaluation of the threat won’t change. "We know that terrorists use maritime routes for logistical purposes – moving fighters and weapons – so there is an obvious maritime link there that needs to be closely monitored," he says.

Dryad Maritime's COO, Ian Millen says that when looking at the volume of maritime crime and piracy events, the numbers drive you toward Southeast Asia. With a 10% rise in 2015 incidents, when compared to 2014, the area leads the crime league table. It’s worth noting that much of the reported crime is of the less serious type (eg. theft of ships’ stores etc), but this does sit alongside more serious vessel hijack for the purposes of refined product cargo theft – and we saw a spate of this last year. The good news is that much of the more serious criminal activity occurred in the first three quarters of 2015, with the final quarter showing crime levels falling back to the levels of 2009.

Today, Dryad Maritime release the Dryad Maritime Country Risk Map, an online risk portal that has been specifically designed to help commercial teams, CSOs, ship owners and managers optimise their maritime security strategies and identify new trading opportunities through enhanced Maritime Domain Awareness. With a simple interface and concise intelligence, the portal is curated, reviewed and updated on a daily basis by Dryad’s specialist team of analysts. Dryad’s Country Risk Map goes beyond the simple aggregation of data seen in other similar products, with multi-source filtering and verification prior to being enriched with the analysis and insight of Dryad’s professional intelligence specialists.

Dryad Maritime, the UK’s leading maritime intelligence and operations company has released its analysis of worldwide reported incidents of piracy and crime against mariners for 2015. Providing commentary on maritime piracy and crime around the world, the conflict in Yemen and Libya, and the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean; the report outlines the diverse and complex threats that shipping companies and mariners face. This latest in-depth report from Dryad Maritime gives an overview of 2015 maritime crime incidents in Dryad's main reporting areas of; the Indian Ocean, Gulf of Guinea, Southeast Asia and the Mediterranean. It offers Dryad’s detailed analysis of these events, highlights key trends and describes what these could mean for ship owners and managers operating in these areas.

Southeast Asia continues to dominate maritime crime incidents globally, with 236 reports of piracy and maritime crime instances occurring in the region since 1st January 2015, an increase of 10% compared to 2014, according to Dryad Maritime. Of these reported incidents, Dryad recorded 106 reports of incidents in the Singapore Strait during 2015, an increase of 72% from 2014. The Somali threat in the Indian Ocean remains contained with no confirmed attacks of merchant ships and the announcement in October of a reduction of the High Risk Area (HRA) inside of the UKMTO’s Voluntary Reporting Area (VRA) reflects this. The detention of 3 Iranian fishing vessels shows the continued resentment local fishermen have towards those engaged in Illegal Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing…

This morning Dryad Maritime released their Mediterranean Special Advisory, an in depth report, looking at the complex threats currently facing commercial shipping in the Mediterranean Sea. It has been written with the purpose of providing a better understanding of this important area of sea, which currently faces political instability, mass migration and the threat of maritime terrorism. “The current refugee and migrant crisis seen in the Mediterranean stands as one of the greatest instances of mass migration since the end of the Second World War. With no end to the conflicts and economic causes to this crisis in sight, the already notable impact upon commercial shipping can only be expected to increase .

Singapore-based anti-piracy agency, ReCAAP Information Sharing Centre (ReCAAP ISC) has recorded a total of 161 incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships in Asia during January-September 2015. This represents a 25 percent increase in the total incidents compared to 2014. Of the 161 reported incidents, ReCAAP classifies 150 as armed robbery and the remaining 11 as piracy. Crewmembers were unharmed in 83 percent of incidents. The majority of the incidents on board ships while underway occurred in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore (SOMS). Of the 110 incidents, 96 (87%) were reported in SOMS, mostly in the eastbound lane of the traffic separation scheme in the Singapore Strait.

On Monday, 19th October, armed pirates attacked and boarded a refrigerated cargo ship underway off the Niger Delta. They stole ship’s cash, destroyed equipment and kidnapped four crewmembers before escaping. Authorities have been notified. There are currently no details relating to the identity of the attacked vessel or the location of the kidnapped crewmembers. This is the first incident reported at sea off the Niger Delta in five months and has taken place 100 NM further west than the spate of kidnappings which took place earlier this year. It comes at a time when the Nigerian Navy are conducting increased patrols of the approaches to the Bonny River, and these patrols may have forced this criminal gang to look into operating in this wider area of West Africa.

Dryad Maritime released its Q3 trends and analysis of global maritime crime showing a stark rise of 38% of incidents across Southeast Asia, when figures are compared to the first nine months of 2014. The apparent impunity of maritime gangs operating in the region has led Dryad to call upon the three nations surrounding the Singapore Strait, in particular, to provide a permanent security presence to deter criminals and protect maritime trade. The number of reported incidents has jumped from 140 on the same nine-month period in 2014 to 194 in 2015. The main focus for criminal gangs in the region has been the petty theft of ships stores as gangs look to steal engine parts and high value machinery for resale on the black market.

Dryad Maritime have featured in a special programme ‘A Maritime Nation’ commissioned by the UK Chamber of Shipping, introduced by national newsreader Natasha Kaplinsky and produced by ITN Productions. The current affairs programme aired this week as part of London International Shipping Week and looks at the role and value of shipping to the UK through interviews and sponsored editorials with some of the UK’s leading shipping companies. Dryad Maritime was one of 14 companies invited to participate in the programme. The UK Chamber of Shipping asked Dryad to contribute to the section on Safety, Sustainability and Growth. In this episode…

An increase of incidents of piracy and armed robbery in SouthEast Asia has prompted Malaysian and Indonesian law enforcement to form a joint rapid deployment team in response, says a report in Reuters. According to reports, the joint force will deploy three helicopters to secure the Strait of Malacca, two of which will be supplied by Indonesia and one of which will be supplied by Malaysia. First Admiral Maritime Zulkifili bin Abu Bakar, director of maritime matters in the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA)'s crime investigations department told Reuters that they would deploy a helicopter-equipped special task and rescue (STAR) team at Johor Bahru. He added that Malaysian and Indonesian navies would form a similar rapid reaction force in the area.

New figures show that Southeast Asia continues to dominate maritime crime incidents globally, with 120 reports of piracy and maritime crime instances occurring in the region since January 1, 2015, an increase of 22 percent compared to the first six months of 2014, according to figures from U.K. maritime intelligence and operations company Dryad Maritime. Of these reported incidents, 12 were vessel hijackings – an increase of three compared to the same period last year. Dryad Maritime…

Piracy and maritime crime is a complex matter, not one with easily identifiable or actionable answers. Dryad Maritime released its analysis of worldwide reported incidents of piracy and crime against mariners for Q1 2015, a report which includes but is not limited to traditional piracy and maritime crime, including also commentary on other threats and issues; from civil war and terrorism in Yemen and Libya to criminal gang enabled mass migration in the Mediterranean, a migration which resulted in an estimated 1,000 deaths during one particularly bad week in April 2015.