Pirates!

Apparently, piracy is alive and well. No, I'm not talking about piracy of music or movies, I'm talking about genuine, high seas piracy. Off the coast of Somalia, piracy is running rampant. Here's a map I found on msnbc.com that shows where pirate attacks occurred in 2008.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27811485/

Just today, a group of pirates, who had taken control of a Saudi oil tanker, released it for the sum of $3 million dollars. This saga has been going on since November, and was resolved today when the pirates lowered their demands from $10 million to $3 million, which the Saudis paid.

Now, these pirates aren't your Captain Jack Sparrow or Dread Pirate Roberts variety. No, these pirates were armed gunmen who hijacked the ship and its crew of 25 and held them for nearly 2 months awaiting ransom demands to be met. This is nasty stuff! While I enjoy pirate movies as much as the next guy, that romantic portrayal has never been close to the real thing.

As you can see from the map, most of the piracy is taking place in the shipping lanes of the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, so you can still take your Caribbean or Alaskan Cruise. On Thursday, the U.S. Navy said it was planning to launch a force to combat piracy in the Gulf of Aden. Hopefully, the Navy, along with the Chinese and others in the region can help to quell these attacks.