AIS and Piracy

Maritime Topics Maritime Security
1

I’ve been watching marinetraffic.com for some time now. A few weeks ago a station started reporting on ships in the Gulf of Adan. While I’m glad to see the information is available for an otherwise unreported part of the world I am a little uncomfortable to see it.

Piracy off Somalia is now legend. I wonder if this information could aid the pirates. They can now track shipping from their iPhone.

What I find most odd about all this is it seems the reporting station is the MV Kellie Chouest, a ship leased by Military Sealift Command for rescue and salvage ops.

What on Earth is an MSC contract ship doing reporting the movements of major shipping in the Gulf of Aden?

I could be wrong about the Kellie Chouest. But it seems the bubble of visibility follows her back and forth threw the gulf. Is she acting as a pirate lure? Is someone just not thinking?

OpSec may be dead but this is taking it a bit far.

2

I’m guessing someone on that ship is moonlighting for marinetraffic.com or just doing it as a hobby or something… But thats just a guess from a guy green enough to be golfed on who probably doesn’t know sh*t haha

3

Are ships allowed to turn their AIS off out there yet? Thought I read something about that somewhere.

4

They’re supposed to leave it on while in the IRTC to aid the naval forces there. Once outside the IRTC in the NAS they’re supposed to turn it off. That visibility works both ways, it’s possible that they were directed to do it to allow the naval forces to view the traffic there. I doubt it though, since bandwidth is pretty tight and the way the patrol boxes are set up.

5

The Navy has their own resources to monitor wide area AIS. There is no reason to broadcast it into the public sphere.

6

marine traffic has a particular ability to let you (the user) download a small app on your PC, which then broadcasts whatever your AIS is picking up where you are at. I have used it, and it is a relatively innocuous program, but I found it disables your own access to the chart plotter software. It seems that the AIS can only output to one serial port at a time, any more locks up the system. Once I found out the AIS can’t handle splitting the port, i deleted it and stopped using the program. And this also needs an active, constantly ON internet connection. So this is near shore, or satellite based only.

Yeah… I wonder what the powers that be are thinking about this free broadcasting of movements in real time, on this area of danger! Or do they even realize it? Or do they even care?

7

[QUOTE=rshrew;49494]Are ships allowed to turn their AIS off out there yet? Thought I read something about that somewhere.[/QUOTE]

At the masters discretion …CFR 33

8

Thanks for the info DeckApe, we are going to share this information with our sources at Naval Intelligence and I’ve also written an editorial on our blog:

Security Breach - Gulf Of Aden AIS Feed Is Now Public

9

The “Kellie” is still working for MSC, but not as a Rescue and Salvage Platform, and they’re actually doing what they are supposed to be doing.

All vessels transiting the GOA(and for that matter transiting the Arabian Sea in general) are nowadays asked to leave their AIS “ON” so the EUFOR and Coalition Task Force ships can easily monitor the status of ships in transit through the area.

For more information, you can go to www.mschoa.org to get a better feel for what’s going on, and specifically what the strategy is in the GOA.

10

Is the strategy for the GoA for someone to rebroadcast other ship’s AIS into public internet websites for the world to see?

Look, for the past three years I’ve spent half the year off the Somali coast supporting our pirate catch-and-release program. I hear the desperate mayday messages on VHS pleading for help. Its disheartening. So I get a bit tweaked on the pirate situation.

Rebroadcasting Gulf of Aden AIS into the Internet, unprotected, is stupid. Its aiding and abetting.

11

The Kellie Chouest was converted to a pirate killer. I’ll just put it that way…have you ever heard of a sea launched Predator drone, or the autonomous speed boat version of the same thing? The Kellie has both, and whatever they are doing is surely intentional, with the special US military detachment on board.

12

See also IMO Circular MSC 86/18/2 of 3 March 2009 (Annex) “Best management practices to deter piracy in the Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Somalia (Feb 2009)”

13

Actually the strategy of the EU NAVFOR and NATO Forces is to do exactly that - give Professional Mariner’s the tools they need to help themselves in time of need, keep an eye out for each other, while at the same time allowing the coalition to be able to monitor vessel movement in the High Risk Area.

Take some time to go to the MSC-HOA website, and do a bit of reading on the current situation as well as the strategic importance of following directions - all of the above by the way is done in conjunction with various national Shipping Associations and Naval Forces to find the best solution to counter piracy.

If the “Kellie” is rebroadcasting AIS data, then trust me there is a very good reason for it. Also, if you think it’s not being rebroadcast by every shore station between Suez, Djibouti, Salalah, and other points along the Arabian Sea, you’re kidding yourself.

Download a copy of the latest Best Management Practices (v3) to counter Piracy off the Somali Coast, take a read, and if you’re not happy with something you see then submit your concerns to the UKMTO, MSCHOA, and the NATO Shipping Centre to allow them to base a decision off of your experiences.

14

El Capitan!!!

I can’t believe you are still lurking around here!!! Don’t be a stranger. Drop me a line sometime.

15

[QUOTE=El Capitan;49559]Actually the strategy of the EU NAVFOR and NATO Forces is to do exactly that - give Professional Mariner’s the tools they need to help themselves in time of need, keep an eye out for each other, while at the same time allowing the coalition to be able to monitor vessel movement in the High Risk Area.

Take some time to go to the MSC-HOA website, and do a bit of reading on the current situation as well as the strategic importance of following directions - all of the above by the way is done in conjunction with various national Shipping Associations and Naval Forces to find the best solution to counter piracy.

If the “Kellie” is rebroadcasting AIS data, then trust me there is a very good reason for it. Also, if you think it’s not being rebroadcast by every shore station between Suez, Djibouti, Salalah, and other points along the Arabian Sea, you’re kidding yourself.

Download a copy of the latest Best Management Practices (v3) to counter Piracy off the Somali Coast, take a read, and if you’re not happy with something you see then submit your concerns to the UKMTO, MSCHOA, and the NATO Shipping Centre to allow them to base a decision off of your experiences.[/QUOTE]

The Best Management Practices is a good document as far as it goes. In my view owners which send ships, in particular the low and slow, though the HoA area without armed guards aboard are putting crews at risk for profit. The BMP was produced at no cost to owners and costs what? ten bucks to transmit to the ships? Compare that the cost of real protection…

Let’s stop pretending that paperwork and web sites can protect minimum manned ships from piracy. I’ll trade an inbox full of this crap for four trained men armed with M-16s. Same goes for the web sites, what good does that do to a crew of a FoC ship? The purpose of this stuff is to provide cover so owners can shift blame to the crews and protect profits. Got a ship under attack? Quick email them a safety bulletin! (and notify the insurance company). Sending a vulnerable ship armed with a pdf file and a list of web sites should be a crime.

K.C.

16

Capt. Lee! Yes, everyone once in a while I come up for air and take a look at what’s going on! Hope you’re doing well, and I’ll drop you a line soon. Be well, old friend!

17

Kennebec! Good to see another maritime professional from the Pine Tree State posting here, and your comments are clear, pragmatic and spoken like a true Mainer.

On the subject - We are 100% in agreement - outfitting a vessel with a well trained, organized and professional security team with a select trove of armament that can be placed into good use - if and when - it is necessary is cheap insurance in these trying times. Imagine if Samho had hired a team to embark the two vessels they ended up paying ransoms for - a fraction of the cost they paid in ransom by the way - the outcome of their current financial situation may have been quite a bit different. FoC or White list - the benefit of embarking Armed Security far outweighs the negatives of not giving yourself a fighting chance.

All that remains is for the owner’s and operator’s to cough up a pair, take the plunge and do the needful to protect their crews and assets (both physical and financial).

18

BMP (version 3) isn’t worth the paper that it’s written on. When the advice includes laying down your weapons if the pirates board and cooperating fully with them, I have to ask what these people are thinking (or smoking). MSCHOA’s website 2 years ago was very good, had accurate information on current attacks and hot spots. Unfortunately, about a year ago, it morphed into a feel good pat on the back website for the command, detailing the vessels that had been briefed in Jebel Ali and which Lieutenant Commander was visiting the command. As a regular in the area and a heavy user of the website, I offered my views diplomatically, but never heard anything back. UKMTO seems more concerned with the ship reaching the start of the IRTC exactly on time (for our group transit - the group consisting of us), whether we have visible anti-piracy measures and querying us on an open channel as to the number of personnel onboard and specifics of our anti-piracy measures (including whether or not we have armed security). The best info out there comes directly from ONI (free), MARISK.DK (pricey, but the alerts are about 12 hours ahead of Securewest) and SomaliaReport.com. SomaliaReport.com is run by Andrew Mwangura out of Mombasa, Kenya and has good background, as well as specifics about piracy. As for AIS, if it is out on Marinetraffic.com or not is (to me) not much of an issue. If the pirates want AIS, they have motherships that have it. There are also nice portable units available from both Kongsberg and ACR (and probably others). The thing to remember is that Somali pirates are looking for opportunity more than a specific vessel - especially out in the Indian Ocean. If they’ve been drifting around for a few days waiting for a ship to come along, they’re going to jump at the first one over the horizon.

I could go on and on, but I have to go get ready for drills and a safety meeting. Safe travels and don’t sweat the AIS - we used to run around with it off, but was directed by the company to have it on. We’ve been attacked both ways, so don’t really see it as an issue.

19

[QUOTE=El Capitan;49588]Kennebec! Good to see another maritime professional from the Pine Tree State posting here, and your comments are clear, pragmatic and spoken like a true Mainer.

On the subject - We are 100% in agreement - outfitting a vessel with a well trained, organized and professional security team with a select trove of armament that can be placed into good use - if and when - it is necessary is cheap insurance in these trying times. Imagine if Samho had hired a team to embark the two vessels they ended up paying ransoms for - a fraction of the cost they paid in ransom by the way - the outcome of their current financial situation may have been quite a bit different. FoC or White list - the benefit of embarking Armed Security far outweighs the negatives of not giving yourself a fighting chance.

All that remains is for the owner’s and operator’s to cough up a pair, take the plunge and do the needful to protect their crews and assets (both physical and financial).[/QUOTE]

Agreed, again I think the BMP doc is useful but with limitations as UT pointed out. I would say I use it as a primary doc, I don’t have internet access so the web pages do me no good.

As to Maine, I about 30% of my neighbors work at BIW to give you an idea of where I live. I am flying out to work in a couple of days, anyway the bugs are coming out in the woods here.

MyGoA convoy rant from a couple of years back is here

K.C.

20

Reading this article, and the responses that followed, struck a strange chord with me. As a federal Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) analyst, my view of data and information is pretty simple- the more the better. The more information we have, the better awareness we have, and the better decisions we can make. This applies to just about any decision that needs to be made, whether it is a course change to avoid another vessel (the original purpose of AIS) or perhaps knowing what other vessels are out there to assist when encountering difficulties- say spotting potential pirates.

Simply said, information is power. The question needs to be asked, is this information more powerful in the hands of pirates or in the hands of friendly commercial vessels and the coalition forces operating in the area? What presents the greatest danger- too much information, or to little?

Take, for example, the article gCaptain posted about the vessel [I]Steve Irwin, [/I]“When the hunter become the hunted: Sea Shephard outruns Somali pirates.” As the article notes, upon their encounter with pirates, the [I]Steve Irwin [/I]was able to outrun the approaching skiffs, and subsequently sent the information about the encounter to nearby naval forces. Interestingly, the article notes the [I]Steve Irwin [/I]was also mistaken by the U.S. naval forces as a Dutch vessel (was their AIS on?). In both cases, the exchange of information helped develop a more accurate picture, and enhanced awareness (i.e. MDA), of what was happening and what the threat was.

Ultimately, just as important the information that is available is the action taken. Certainly pirates can use it to target vessels and easily identify their next victim. Just as easily, vessels can use that information to identify who else is transiting those waters, who is friend or foe, and who can call on for assistance if they are under attack.

For those that operate on or around the water, you know you can’t have full awareness of what is going on around you without accurate information. Just check out the latest mishap report and it will be easy to see the consequences. Then the question remains the same…which is more dangerous, too much information or too little?