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Pirates released a Greek-operated cargo ship with a crew of 12 Ukrainians aboard that was hijacked off Somalia over the weekend, the ship’s operator says.

“Yesterday night, the captain contacted us,” said George Tripakis, managing director of TDM Carrier, the Athens-based operator of the cargo ship MG Lugela.

“He informed us that everybody is OK, alive, the pirates not on board, and the vessel in proceeding to Bombay (Mumbai, India).” Pirates attacked the vessel on Saturday some 900 nautical miles off the coast of Somalia, after it left the Gulf of Aden, the Brussels-based the European Union NAVFOR command said.

The ship altered course a short time later and headed for the Somali coast, NAVFOR said, No information was immediately available concerning the circumstances of the release of the Panama-flagged ship.

The ship had left the Egyptian port of Alexandria and was heading to Mauritius carrying steel bars and cable, the owners said. The ship has since its release been ordered to change course for Mumbai to undergo an examination.

“We would like to check the vessel,” in the Indian port, Tripakis said.

Foreign naval powers have deployed dozens of warships since 2008 in a bid to secure the Gulf, a crucial maritime route leading to the Suez Canal through which tens of thousands of merchant vessels transit each year.

But pirates have gradually extended their area of operations, seizing ships as far east as the Maldives’ territorial waters and as far south as the Canal of Mozambique.

Naval missions, including the European Union’s Atalanta deployment, have boasted success in curbing attacks but the number of hijacked ships and detained seafarers remains at one of its highest levels since Somali piracy surged in 2007.

By timeslive.co.za

A ship is docked outside the container terminal at the southern Yemeni port of Aden

International talks to try and stop the hunting of whales have collapsed amid accusations whaling nations like Japan, Iceland and Norway are unwilling to stop the slaughter.

The International Whaling Commission has been negotiating for three years to try and find a new agreement that will limit the number of whales killed every year.

But after two days of closed meetings in Morrocco, it appears the 88 countries involved in the talks have failed to find a common position.

Commercial whaling has been illegal for almost 25 years but there are a number of loopholes such as whaling for ’scientific research’ that allow whaling to continue. About 1,500 animals are killed each year by Japan, Norway and Iceland.

Anti-whaling nations, including the UK, wanted to bring in a quota so that the number of animals killed is limited.

But it was impossible for the IWC to agree a quota that the whaling nations can live with. At the heart of the disagreement is whether to allow any whaling in the Southern Ocean, which is a hunting ground for Japan but is supposed to a be a whale sanctuary.

Anthony Liverpool, acting chairman of the IWC, said the “fundamental positions remained very much apart.”

Monica Medina, US chief delegate, said the American objective remained to “save whales now”.
“After nearly three years of discussions, it appears our discussions are at an impasse,” she said.
Dr Susan Lieberman, director of international policy for the Pew Environment Group, blamed the whaling nations.

“We are deeply disappointed that the governments present here, after more than three years of intense work, could not reach a solution that will benefit whale conservation. In particular, the lack of sufficient flexibility shown by Japan to phase out its whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary prevented a decision from being adopted. Unregulated whaling outside of IWC control, by Japan, Norway, and Iceland, will now be able to continue.”

Some environmentalists have accused Japan of vote-buying, using development aid money and personal favours to swing small, poorer nations to its side in the whaling debate.

But Yasue Funayama, the Japanese whaling commissioner, said her country had offered major concessions to reach a compromise and blamed anti-whaling countries that refused to accept the killing of a single animal.

“We must rise above politics and engage in a broader perspective,” she said.

The whaling commission was created after World War II to conserve and manage whale stocks. A moratorium on commercial whaling was introduced in 1986.

It is thought the moratorium will remain in place but the collapse of the talks means that ships could continue to hunt by using the existing ‘loopholes’.

However there could be other means to stop whaling as Australia has threatened to take Japan to the International Court of Justice to stop the animals being killed in the Southern Ocean.

By Louise Gray

Dead minke whales aboard the flensing deck of the Nisshin Maru research factory ship of the whaling fleet of Japan Photo: ALAMY

The crew of the North Korean flagged general cargo ship RIM have regained control of the ship. It had been hijacked on February 3 and was being held at Garacad, off Somalia’s northern coastline.

Yesterday, at 1010 local time, the RIM reported that the crew had successfully retaken control of the ship and that it was headed south. One crew members was seriously injured.

The closest EU NAVFOR warship, the Spanish frigate VICTORIA, which was 100 miles away, was directed to the scene to give medical assistance and immediately launched its helicopter.

The helicopter found that, though the crew were still in control of the RIM, it was being pursued by pirates in another hijacked vessel, the MV VOC DAISY. When the helicopter approached the MV VOC DAISY, it changed her course - no warning shots were fired.

On reaching the scene, th VICTORIA then sent medical assistance to the vessel and took the injured crew member on board for treatment.

It is believed that some of the pirates were killed during the retaking of the ship.

A U.S. Navy warship  prevented an attack on a Tanzanian ship and apprehended eight suspected pirates in the process, the U.S. Embassy in Tanzania said on Tuesday.

USS Farragut dispatched an SH-60B Seahawk helicopter to MV Barakaale 1 after it raised a distress call saying it was under attack from a gang on a skiff, the embassy said in a statement.

“The helicopter then stopped the … skiff as it attempted to speed away, by firing warning shots across its bow,” it said.

“A boarding team from USS Farragut boarded the vessel and the eight suspected pirates were taken aboard the Farragut.”

The statement did not say when and where the incident occurred, nor give the pirates’ nationalities. The USS Farragut is a guided missile destroyer and part of Combined Task Force 151 that patrols the Gulf of Aden and the east coast of Somalia.

The task force, formed in 2009, comprises about three dozen ships from Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Pakistan, Canada, Denmark, Turkey, United States and United Kingdom among other countries.

The coast off Somalia is among the world’s most dangerous shipping lanes.

The number of piracy attacks worldwide jumped by 40 percent last year, with gunmen from the failed Horn of Africa state accounting for more than half the 406 reported incidents, according to the International Maritime Bureau. Hard money training.