Pirates Throw “Net” Wider
March 16, 2010 - 12:54 PM by: Greg Palkot

Pirates continue to venture further and further out to sea in search of modern-day “booty.” Luckily for the folks on the high seas, international navies are now hot on their trail.

The European Union’s anti-pirate naval force reports they’ve nabbed two more groups of buccaneers, some 1000 miles off the coast of Somalia in the Indian Ocean.
“It just shows you the great work we’re doing in the Gulf of Aden,” EU’s Commander John Harbour told Fox News.

The latest run-in’s happened over the weekend and involved the Dutch Naval Frigate Tromp, as well as Swedish and Luxembourg aircraft operating out of the Seychelles islands. Two days after a German ship reported they were being attacked, the European forces caught up with a pirate mother ship, two skiffs and 9 pirates.

At about the same time, closer to the Seychelles islands, the country’s own coast guard, with the help of the EU aircraft caught pirates in three other boats going after a Spanish fishing ship.
The months of March and April, with the monsoon subsiding, is a busy time for piracy and pirate chasing. “There is a lot of activity and we have increased our resources,” Commander Harbour told us.

In fact, in the last three weeks, international navies have taken into custody 12 of what they call “pirate action groups.” At the same time, though, 2 pirate hijackings have occurred.
The hunt goes on.