Fed: Pirates eye off cruise ships

AAP General News (Australia)
08-07-2009
Fed: Pirates eye off cruise ships

By Jessica Marszalek

BRISBANE, Aug 7 AAP - Armed guards could become a feature at cruise ship cocktail bars
and swimming pools as the threat of sea piracy escalates, a tourism security expert says.

Cruise ships will increasingly become floating terrorism targets as security at airports
increases and hardliners look to other easy options, according to tourism crisis and recovery
management specialist David Beirman.

Dr Beirman will use this month's Tourism Futures conference on the Gold Coast to warn
of the impending threat and talk about the surveillance and security that will be needed
on vessels in the future.

Dr Beirman said airports had strengthened security after the September 11, 2001 terror
attacks in the US, making aircraft a tougher target.

Tour buses and hotels were easier marks, as seen in last month's Indonesian hotel bombings,
he said.

"So every day we find different types of security threats to different elements of
the tourism and hospitality industry," he said.

Last December, six bandits in two small speedboats, believed to be operating from the
pirate haven of Somalia, approached the cruise ship Nautica, off the coast of Yemen.

It was carrying 684 passengers and nearly 400 crew members on a 32-day cruise from
Rome to Singapore.

The pirates managed to fire eight rounds at the Nautica before the cruise ship was
able to increase its speed and pull away to safety.

Dr Beirman said such incidents had compelled some cruise ship companies to take tough
security measures.

"There are a few things - number one is surveillance so that on the bridge they are
able to keep a good watch on what sort of vessels are approaching," he said.

"There's now the necessity that cruise ships that might be sailing in waters that could
be considered dangerous ... should perhaps have some armed security on board.

"Some have gone to an even greater extent and have had some kind of missile defence.

"I'm not suggesting the QE2 turns into an aircraft carrier ... but there are a number
of basic security measures that can be taken."

Dr Beirman said maritime choke points such as the Strait of Malacca, which runs between
the Indonesian island of Sumatra and southern Thailand, were particularly vulnerable to
sea piracy.

But many cruise ships were not adequately prepared for the increasing risk.

"The thing which is a concern in many ways is that because terrorists' number one motive
of launching an attack is to achieve publicity, a cruise ship is a very logical target,"

he said.

"It moves slowly, it has passengers from many countries in the world.

"If a terrorist can take control of a ship as happened back in the 1980s with the Achille
Lauro (hijacked by Palestinian terrorists off the Egyptian coast) it achieves massive
publicity."

AAP jmm/pjo/srp

KEYWORD: TOURISM PIRATES

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