| Jan.-June 2025 | 90 |
| Jan.-June 2024 | 60 |
| Full year 2024 | 116 |
| Average 2021-2024 | 121 |
| All-time peak (2005) | 471 |
* International Maritime Bureau.
WHAT THEY MEAN:
Statistically, the risk of a pirate attack isn’t high. UNCTAD’s Review of Maritime Transport found 108,789 civilian vessels — trawlers, cruise ships, container ships, tankers, etc. — on the water last year. Fishing fleet data is less precise, but FAO’s most recent State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture suggests that somewhere around 70,000 big fishing boats. Set against these tens of thousands of ships, the Kuala Lumpur-based International Maritime Bureau reported 116 pirate attacks last year. This is the second-lowest total in their thirty years of reporting, and down nearly 80% from the 471-attack peak in 2005.
Nonetheless, it’s bad if it happens to you. The May 30 attack on the MV Orange Frost illustrates. This is an eight-year-old refrigerated bulk carrier, built in Taiwan and Curacao-flagged, 8,726 deadweight tons and 137 meters long. At the time, it was carrying a cargo of fish from Cameroon to the Republic of Congo. IMB’s attack summary:
“Seven pirates boarded the ship underway. [Note: they were steaming south past Sao Tome e Principe, about 70 nautical miles from nearest land.] Alarm raised, distress message activated, and all but two crew retreated into the citadel. A Nigerian Navy team responded, boarded the ship, and assisted the crew. On inspecting the ship bloodstains were identified near a ladder used by the pirates. It is suspected a crew member [later reported to be the second engineer] was kidnapped. The ship sailed to a safe port.”
As an example of this year’s pirate events, this one is pretty typical. First, it occurred in a high-risk location, the Gulf of Guinea being one of three long-time centers of pirate activity, along with the busy Southeast Asian waters around Singapore and Indonesia, and the Horn of Africa. Second, like 71 of the 90 attacks this year, this was a high-seas attack in international waters; only 15 attacks so far have targeted ships at anchor, and only four ships in dock. Third, bulk carriers are frequent targets, hit in 34 attacks so far this year, as against 23 on tankers, 13 container ships, 4 fishing trawlers, and the remaining 16 miscellaneous vessels. And finally, it had apparently limited goals, with the pirates looking for a theft and kidnapping-for-ransom opportunity rather than trying a full hijacking.
Stepping back a bit, though, IMB’s data suggests that pirate attacks are becoming more frequent and more dangerous. Some indicators:
By region, attack counts are sharply up this year in two of the three high-risk areas. The biggest jump has been in maritime Southeast Asia, with 57 of this year’s 90 attacks in the Singapore Strait. IMB’s summary suggests that these are mainly opportunistic operations: “Pirates/robbers [in the Singapore Strait] are usually armed with guns, knives, and/or machetes. Pirates/robbers normally approach vessels during the night. When spotted and alarm is sounded, the pirates/robbers usually escape without confronting the crew.”
Attack counts are also up (though totals are lower) around the Horn of Africa. Here, ships must pick their way between an ominously reviving Somali pirate fleet to the south and the Houthi movement running Yemen on the north. Where most Southeast Asian and West African pirates appear to be small-scale (though violent) opportunists, Somalia’s pirates operate on an industrial scale, using military weapons and in the 2010s attacking ships as far south as Mozambique and Madagascar:
“Somali pirates have the capability to target vessels over 1000 nautical miles from coast using ‘mother vessels.’ In 2025, two fishing vessels and a dhow were hijacked. … Generally, Somali pirates tend to be well armed with automatic weapons and RPGs. They sometimes use skiffs launched from mother vessels, which may themselves be hijacked fishing vessels or dhows.”
At their peak 15 years ago, Somali pirates had captured 49 ships and were holding over 1,000 crew hostage. International naval patrols suppressed the industry in the mid-2010s. It may now be reviving, perhaps taking advantage of the “security shadow” cast to the north of the Gulf of Aden by the Houthi militant movement in Yemen, to resume large-scale pirate ventures. Somali pirates mounted all four of last year’s successful ship hijacks, and three of this year’s four.
The Gulf of Guinea has been quieter, with no rise this year. So MV Orange Frost appears to have had bad luck. We haven’t found any public updates on the unfortunate Second Engineer’s status, but the in general May attack seems to have interrupted the ship’s business only temporarily. Having finished a Mauritania-Ghana trip last week, it’s now back in Congo.
The International Maritime Bureau’s piracy reporting for January to June 2025 (with archives for earlier reports).
The U.S. Navy tallies threats to civilian shipping worldwide.
The Nigerian Navy recounts the rescue of MV Orange Frost.
… and MV Orange Frost itself is back to business.
The rise, fall, and possible revival of Somalia’s pirate fleet:
The Brookings Institution has background on the Somali pirate industry’s 2000-2010 peak.
Combined Task Force 151, led this year by Pakistan, squashed it by 2015.
Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies/Africa reports on its recent revival.
And some boat counts:
UNCTAD counts civilian cargo vessels, and reports on worldwide maritime trade as of 2024.
And FAO’s estimates of the fishery fleet.
Ed Gresser is Vice President and Director for Trade and Global Markets at PPI.
Ed returns to PPI after working for the think tank from 2001-2011. He most recently served as the Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Trade Policy and Economics at the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR). In this position, he led USTR’s economic research unit from 2015-2021, and chaired the 21-agency Trade Policy Staff Committee.
Ed began his career on Capitol Hill before serving USTR as Policy Advisor to USTR Charlene Barshefsky from 1998 to 2001. He then led PPI’s Trade and Global Markets Project from 2001 to 2011. After PPI, he co-founded and directed the independent think tank ProgressiveEconomy until rejoining USTR in 2015. In 2013, the Washington International Trade Association presented him with its Lighthouse Award, awarded annually to an individual or group for significant contributions to trade policy.
Ed is the author of Freedom from Want: American Liberalism and the Global Economy (2007). He has published in a variety of journals and newspapers, and his research has been cited by leading academics and international organizations including the WTO, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund. He is a graduate of Stanford University and holds a Master’s Degree in International Affairs from Columbia Universities and a certificate from the Averell Harriman Institute for Advanced Study of the Soviet Union.
