Somali Pirates Take Another Ship

Somali Pirates Living the High Life

But higher insurance fees would still cost less than the additional security, loss of productivity, manpower and ransom being paid out by companies when their ships are captured.

The British think-tank Chatham House released a report last month that estimated that more than $30 million in ransom money had been paid to pirates, at an average of about $2 million per ship. The money has turned piracy, which started more than a decade ago by Somali fishermen as a way to protect their trade from illegal fishing by other nationals, into big business.

Now the small fishing villages and towns on the coast are flush with cash. There are reports of young men in "pirate gangs" living the high-life in one of the poorest regions of Somalia. The resident of one town told the BBC that the pirates "wed the most beautiful girls. They are building big houses, they have new cars, new guns."

All that ransom money has also allowed pirates to run a more sophisticated operation. In the Chatham House report, "Piracy in Somalia: Threatening Global Trade, Feeding Local Wars," Roger Middleton, a researcher for the think tank's Africa program, said that pirates are increasingly using "mother ships" to increase their range and scope out targets.

"These are generally fishing trawlers that the pirates capture closer to shore and then use as staging posts for attacks farther out to sea," he said.

More money also means better weapons, usually purchased from Yemen or the country's volatile capital, Mogadishu. The pirates even have a spokesman who frequently gives interviews by satellite phone.

So far, the CMF and the U.S. Navy maintain that once a ship is captured the ransom negotiations and what happens to the cargo is between the shipper and the pirates -- with one exception.

When the pirates grabbed the MV Faini and its load of weaponry Sept. 25, there were fears that the lethal load would find its way into war-torn Somalia or other parts of Africa.