One new technique is to airdrop the money. A million dollars in $100 notes weighs about 29 pounds. It is placed into a container like an inflatable ball and dropped out of an airplane using a parachute guided by a Global Positioning System.
Both Cloonan and Brown say this is a more accurate and a less risky way to deliver ransom money, but it's very expensive and the K&R company has to have the capability to do it, and not all do.
Adding up the ransom, the drop, the K&R fees and the loss of productivity during the negotiating time equals millions if not tens of millions of dollars for a company whose ship has been hijacked, Cloonan said.
Because of the rising danger of piracy, Brown has seen a "tenfold increase" in the demand for his piracy policies since Seacurus started three years ago. He even had to interrupt his interview with ABC News twice to take calls relating to negotiating new policies.
As complicated as the ransom drop can be, getting to that point is a tedious and delicate process. Though the pirates are based in one of the poorest and most chaotic countries on Earth, they have access to sophisticated satellite phones, faxes, even text messaging.
And negotiating with them can be nerve wracking.
"It's unlike negotiating a kidnapping in Mexico or Afghanistan or Baghdad. It's taking place in a hostile maritime environment," said Cloonan. "You have to have the resources to deliver the ransom if required to. You have to be very strong-willed and understand what the risks are."
The most important part of the negotiations is establishing who will speak for the company and who will speak for the often squabbling pirates.
"First, one has to have a communicator on behalf of the shipowner who has to be identified. And then what you hope is that the bad guys will come to their senses and put a good communicator on their end," said Cloonan. "He has to have the authority to speak to reach a consensus. Until you get a good communicator on behalf of the hijackers you can waste a good amount of time."
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