The Cost Of Piracy – Broken Down gCaptain Total Views: 345 January 17, 2011 At the end of 2010, around 500 seafarers from more than 18 countries are being held hostage by pirates. Piracy clearly affects the world’s largest trade transport industry, but how much is it costing the world? Oceans Beyond Piracy has completed a study on the economic cost of maritime piracy. The project set out to analyze the cost of piracy to three regions: (1) the Horn of Africa; (2) Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea; (3) the Malacca Straits. The focus has inevitably been on the costs of Somali piracy because this is the region where contemporary piracy is most highly concentrated and is the great- est source of current data and information. The project primarily analyzes direct costs, but also considers some secondary (indirect) costs and  is designed to be a collaborative effort, and we welcome any data sources, com- ments, or other suggestions that interested stakeholders might have. Ransoms Over the past five years, ransoms paid to Somali pirates have increased from an average of $150,000 in 2005 to $5.4 million in 2010. The largest known ransom payment was for the South Korean oil tanker, the Samho Dream (pictured below).1 This ves- sel was ransomed for a record $9.5 million in November 2010. By the end of 2010, approximately $238 million was paid in ransoms to Somali pirates in that year alone. Prosecuting Piracy Over 750 Somali piracy suspects have either been tried for piracy, or await trial in more than 11 countries. To calculate the cost of piracy prosecutions, we worked out the number of prosecutions held in three regions: Africa and the Indian Ocean, Europe, and North America. We have then multiplied this number by an ap- proximation of the average cost of prosecutions for piracy or simi- lar crimes in each region. The project estimates the cost of piracy trials and imprisonment in 2010 to be around $31 million. Organizations Dedicated to Reducing Piracy A number of intergo