HOW NOT TO REPEL PIRATES

Here lately there have been some heavy hitters posting on the world’s response to modern day pirates in the Gulf of Aden. How come? Well, those pesky Somali pirates have kept themselves in the headlines long enough to draw the attention of the UN Security Council (I'll bet the pirates are terrified). However, most of the posters just don’t have a clue about this pirate stuff. This blog is about how NOT to repel pirates.

First off pirates are not like the actors on TV or the movies. In reality they armed robbers, kidnappers and terrorists. Pirates are now arm better armed, organize and financed than ever before.

Repelling pirates with fire hoses and fire monitors is just dumb. You are only going to make the pirates mad and you will be exposing crew members to real bullets

Using fire bombs to repel pirates is probably the worst thing you could do. The crew members will be in the open when they toss the fire bombs. In addiction the pirates can just catch the bottles and throw them back at the crew members. There by creating another major problem that only aids the pirates. Just stupid!

Some posters recommend using a Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) which is an expensive loud hailer that can easily be defeated with ear protection (cigarette butts). You are dreaming if you think harsh words are not going to stop a pirate attack, it’s only going to make them laugh.

There are many good laws that forbid seafarers from arming themselves. There is also the problem of clearing in/out of international ports with firearms. In practices it’s a bad idea to shoot at a more experience and better armed group of pirates.

Issuing Letters of Marque & Reprisal to civilian contractors like Blackwater, Paratus World Wide Protection, or Triple Canopy is another bad idea. Private security guards are not keepers of the international law. Government armed forces are keepers of international law. The same argument applies to enforcing anti-pirating laws.

Denial of Ransom?  “Stop paying the pirates and many of them will likely find new careers ashore.” Economics and seeking funds to support terror activities is the reason they are pirates. I am sure seafarers and their families don’t think much of this idea

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GOOGLE OCEAN IS A TOY NOT A TOOL

MAPPING IS THE FIRST STEP IN EXPLORATION In an age when we are mapping the surfaces of Venus and Mars, it is difficult to believe that so little is known about our own planet. We know more about the backside of the moon than we do about the bottom of the ocean. Louisville seamount chain which is a chain of large undersea volcanoes having a length equal to the distance between New York and Los Angeles. These features are unfamiliar because they were discovered a little more than 20 years ago. The Louisville seamount chain was first detected in 1972 using depth soundings collected along random ship crossings of the South Pacific This is a composite map using satellite data and multi-beam sonar data.  HUDSON CANYON The Hudson Canyon is still a true ocean wilderness right in the backyard of the largest metropolitan area on earth, NEW YORK Cartography is still a art and science. Lots of new methods and ideas that is marrying more than a few branches of bathymetries However, what users are seeing is an artefact of the data collection process. Sea floor terrain data is often collected from boats using sonar to take measurements of the sea floor. The lines reflect the path of the boat as it gathers the data. The fact that there are blank spots between each of these lines is a sign of how little we really know about the world's oceans.
  SOME VERY COOL MAPS  

 GOOGLE OCEAN version 5.0 You can fly under the surface of oceans and explore underwater terrain

 

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