IMarEST to host piracy solutions conference

The Institute of Marine Engineering, Science & Technology (IMarEST), UK, is hosting a conference titled “Piracy and Offshore Security - Practical responses and Solutions” next week.

The conference will be held at the Action Stations of the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.

Piracy and robbery at sea have been around for thousands of years with the first documented instances in the thirteenth century BC. The focus is now off the coast of Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden where piracy has threatened international shipping since the beginning of Somalia's civil war in the early 1990s.

Piracy attacks off the Somali coast this year have already surpassed the entire total of attacks for 2008 according to the Piracy Reporting Centre at the International Maritime Bureau (IMB).

The under-reported incidents of largely terrorist attacks on offshore oil installations off Nigeria's Delta area are also on the rise.

The two-day conference, with a keynote address on the naval perspective by Rear Admiral Philip Wilcocks CB DSC, will look at practical responses and solutions as well as providing briefing on a wide range of topics.

Source: Baird Maritime