Tradewinds today (March 4th) reports that two tankers and a LNG carrier took evasive action off the coast of Yemen to avoid a ‘cluster of suspicious skiffs’. One vessel reported an approach to around 130m, but none of the vessels was attacked.
The news comes during a period of apparent increased suspicious activity in the region, with reports of approaches off Djibouti and in the IRTC in the Gulf of Aden at the end of February, as well as the beginning of March.
So far, no agency is identifying the incidents as piracy-related, given that no obvious piracy ‘tripwires’ were reported (these would include sightings of weapons, ladders and so on). The news will not please the shipping industry, given the peace enjoyed by seafarers off the Somali coast in recent years.
Despite the fall in piracy, the nature of threats in the region continues to evolve, with rebels allied to the al Houthi cause threatening Saudi coalition vessels in the Red Sea, and the news that naval mines have been seen in the region; one report recently suggested that three fishing vessel crew were killed by a mine in early February.
Maritime Security News 