Dryad Global’s latest Maritime Security Threat Advisory (MSTA), in its latest data suggests that globally recorded maritime security incidents are at their lowest levels in 40 years with incidents of offshore piracy across both the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Guinea regions showing considerable declines from previously high rates.
Dryad’s latest MSTA, which was released on January 9, showed that there have been zero maritime security incidents across West Africa and the Indian Ocean this year. Two incidents were recorded in South East Asia, according to the MSTA, which highlighted that this was 50 percent down on year ago levels.
“The former [is] showing a substantial decline to a near total absence of incidents across a protracted timeframe and the later [is] showing a decline in incident volumes with sporadic evidence of a persistent threat within key areas,” the MSTA stated.
“At the outset of 2023 the Indian Ocean region sees the removal of the HRA which had been in place since 2010, reflecting the considerable decline in traditional maritime security threats within that region,” the MSTA added.
The company’s previous MSTA, which was released on December 12, outlined that total maritime security incidents dropped 36 percent year on year in West Africa and five percent year on year in the Indian Ocean. Incidents had risen 21 percent year on year in South East Asia, however, that MSTA revealed.
“Whilst piracy remains at historically low levels, it is important to note that this is set against the backdrop of a worsening macro-economic headwind that is highly likely to accentuate many of the conditions which are responsible for the prevalence of piracy,” Dryad warned in its latest MSTA.
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“Within key regions of both the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Guinea, poverty, considerable onshore insecurity, weak governance and the prevalence of considerable volumes of established criminal enterprise are all conditions which could precipitate a return to piracy,” the MSTA added.
Dryad’s latest MSTA also noted that, despite the decline in incidents of piracy, maritime crime has persisted globally with high volumes of incidents within Southeast Asian waters and many littoral regions.
In addition, the MSTA stated that, beyond “low level” maritime crime, 2022 saw a “continuation of the theme of rising geopolitical instability with threats to global shipping including the continued targeting of Israeli owned vessels by Iran, the extension of war risk into the maritime domain resulting from the ongoing war in Yemen and likewise within the Black Sea”.
According to the Maritime Information Cooperation and Awareness Centre’s (MICA) latest annual maritime security report, piracy and robbery incidents dropped from 375 in 2020, to 318 in 2021, and 300 in 2022.
“The decline in maritime piracy and robbery that began in 2021 continued this year [2022],” the report stated.
“In 2022, the MICA Center recorded 300 incidents, which represents a decrease around five percent compared to 2021. This decrease is due in particular to a noteworthy drop in piracy events, while acts of robbery are stable or even increasing in some areas of the world,” the report added.
