Tanker Sea-Jacked by Somali Pirates?

Pirate watchdog group says the navies remain mum, but reports are flying.

Pirates in Somalia, unknown source.

(NAIROBI, Kenya) - Officially yet to be confirmed reports from Somalia indicate that a vessel, which was only described as a chemical tanker, was sea-jacked during the night or early morning, sometime between 16 Feb. and 17 Feb.

Ecoterra International says this is an area said to be off the coast of the Sultanate of Oman.

Naval reporting centers wouldn't confirm the case at this point, and further detailed reports are awaited.

In the case of pirated MV RIM, the naval commands waited for two days to report the hijacking to to the public.

Ecoterra said, "Piracy certainly will not go away by not reporting it."

Asian Glory Oversees Pirate Motherships

Asian Glory Photo: vesseltracker.com

For the second time, the sea-jacked vehicle carrier ASIAN GLORY went to the rescue of a pirate mother-boat. Ecoterra reports that over the last two days it was commandeered to fetch the pirate crew and one of the larger pirate attack vessels, an over 10m long version of a local fiberglass fishing boat with an inbuilt Volvo Penta engine, which the Somalis call "Volva".

In the previous incident the huge carrier with several hundred cars on board went to relieve Somali pirates on board a sea-jacked vessel, which had run out of fuel and had a defective steering.

The Somalis were picked up, but her shaken crew left to be attended to by a naval vessel nearby.

ASIAN GLORY, which develops more and more into a floating pirate base, has already returned to her mooring near Danaane at the Somali Indian Ocean coast, where vessel and the crew of 25, including 10 Ukrainians, 8 Bulgarians, 2 Romanians and 5 Indians are held hostage since the beginning of the year, apparently without a resolution in near sight.

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Source: Ecoterra International