Blog 37: Controversial Results from Somali Piracy

Channel 4 News has this controversial headline and story about the pirates in the Somali coast: "The 'benefit' of Somalia's pirates."

This is a really short piece with a video, but it made me think really hard about the implications of all this: "Fisherman in Kenya have reported bumper catches of shark and shellfish because commercial fishing boats from China and Japan have been scared away."

The fact that the pirates might have sailed to sea in part because of the dire economic situation in their country does not really justify violence to me, but the unexpected results is not that the pirates get money from their piracy, but that fishermen and the ecosystem benefit.

The story says this was the best fishing season for this town in 40 years. On the other hand, I am sure the industrial fishing boats have gone somewhere else to fish, so another town of fishermen, somewhere else, will have a bad season this year.

The link to the video is here.