What is Maritime Security?

Many people understand maritime security to be the role of the military to protect our seas and oceans, but this is not always the case. All of us depend on the seas and oceans, not just as an abundant food supply, but safe, secure and clean seas and oceans ensure our prosperity and peace.

Air transportation can be prohibitively expensive or logistically impossible for the movement of some items. So we rely on ships to transport these goods and foodstuffs, just as in other methods of transportation. Criminal organizations look for any security vulnerabilities in the supply chain and seek to exploit them for their own gain. This leads to acts of piracy, armed robbery, hostage taking and other criminal activities. It is through adequate security that we can maintain the rule of law in areas beyond national jurisdiction and protect strategic maritime interests.

Who provides maritime security?

The seas and oceans are so vast because seas and oceans account for 70% of the Earth's surface, that it is literally impossible for governments to provide security for the whole area, to patrol literally millions of square miles of ocean would take legions of planes and warships to protect it, this is quite clearly impossible to achieve. The most effective option is to employ the services of what are referred to as privately contracted maritime security companies, which provide a team of armed guards, usually three, to stay on board the ship when it is transiting through high-risk areas.

Maritime security in the past decade. Maritime terrorism, piracy, armed robbery, and kidnapping were for hundreds of years limited to isolated criminal incidents around the world. The big change for maritime security came with the rise of piracy off the coast of Somalia between 2008 and 2011, what started as an attempt by local fishermen to protect their local fishing rights against foreign commercial fishing operations over some years developed into well-organized and well structured criminal gang activities funded by influential and powerful organizations.

Piracy emerging from Somalia has decayed intensely. In 2012 The International Maritime Bureau (IMB), part of the International Chamber of Commerce, reported that there were 75 attempted and real piracy occurrences in that year by Somali pirates, but only 15 and 2013 in the past five years. The hotbed of maritime criminal activity has shifted from East Africa to West Africa, in particular in the Gulf of Guinea Gog. In that region, there have been many occurrences of criminal activity, but with more emphasis on the stealing of property, rather than a long-term hostage-taking strategy that was so prevalent in the East African area in the South China Sea. Criminal activity has been on the increase in the past decade, as politically motivated groups seek to take hostages, both for financial and political gain.

The International Maritime Organization.

IMO is the organization which is responsible for trying to make trading and traveling on the sea as secure and safe as possible, for any possible security threats, which jeopardized security. The organization developed suitable guidance and regulations to lower and manage risks through the Maritime Safety Committee and with contributions from the Legal Committee and Facilitation Committee. The IMO developed provisions designed to address maritime security matters within the International Ship and Port Facility Security or ISPS code, which includes many instructions and forms of guidance for all countries who are part to the Convention.

The aim of the ISPS Code is to ensure that the applicable port facilities and ocean-going vessels of IMO Member States are implementing the highest possible standards of security. The ISPS code is divided into two sections. Part of a series of guidelines on how to meet those requirements in a non-mandatory, Part B and detailed security-related requirements for shipping companies, port authorities and governments in Part A which is mandatory, to counter the tactics used by Somali pirates. A booklet was collectively published by the shipping industry called BMP 4, which stands for Best Management Practices.

It suggests 3 fundamental principles:

1st. Register with Michelle or Maritime Security Centre, Horn of Africa

2nd. Report to Yukito or United Kingdom Marine Trade Operations and

3rd. Implement Ship Protection Measures or SPM.

These BMP tactics appear to have been extremely effective in deterring and preventing pirate attacks and vessels being targeted who used at least three evasion measures have dependably been able to evade boarding by pirates. Many merchant vessels, however, did not use sufficient evasion measures. In fact, in nearly half of the cases attributed to East African pirates. The vessels did not report using any evasion tactics.

src: estumar.com