Deterrence of Piracy, the NATO Way

Fresh off the operations conducted by the Dutch, the Canadian Navy spends 7 full hours chasing down a pirate attack on the 80,000 ton MV Front Ardenne.

Canadian sailors apprehended a band of Somali pirates at gunpoint early Sunday morning after a seven-hour pursuit across the Gulf of Aden, much of it under the cover of night.

HMCS Winnipeg, sailing off the Horn of Africa as part of a NATO-led anti-piracy mission, was escorting a United Nations food shipment when it happened on a skiff carrying seven bandits attempting to hijack the MV Front Ardenne, an 80,000-tonne tanker from Norway.

The Somalis ignored warning shots fired by a Canadian naval helicopter and fled the scene. HMCS Winnipeg, led by Commander Craig Baines, left the food shipment to other NATO vessels and gave chase.

An American ship also joined the pursuit. It was the Canadians who got to the pirates first.

The article goes on to tell the story of the 7 hour pursuit conducted by the Canadian Navy to capture the pirates. Unfortunately, this is NATO.

But after all that, the Somalis were released. The Canadian sailors, like their NATO allies, lack the authority to make arrests in international waters.

Several International Navy's are expending a tremendous amount of energy and expense to fight pirates, just so they can toss some AK-47s and RPGs into the Gulf of Aden because the global political community cannot find a legal system for the worlds oldest crime at sea.

The results of the last few days will only encourage more piracy. Catch and release is not deterrence.