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Spanish tuna fishing vessel the Txori Argi. (Photo: INPESCA)
Basque tuna vessel repels pirate attack
SPAIN
Tuesday, March 16, 2010, 01:20 (GMT + 9)
The minister of the Ministry of Environment and Rural and Marine Affairs (MARM), Elena Espinosa, admitted that security in the Indian Ocean must continue to be reinforced. äem She recognised this need following the attack sustained by the Spanish tuna vessel Txori Argi when it was 80 miles off the main island of Seychelles.
"We have to continue reinforcing cooperation in the Indian Ocean. We must continue reinforcing all the safety measures,” the minister indicated.
At the time of the attack, the ship belonging to Basque shipowner Inpesca carried 14 Galician crew, among a total of 29 people.
This episode makes five Spanish company vessels that have sustained pirate harassment during this month.
The location of the attempted attack was considered quite a safe zone until now, since it is some 1,200 kilometres off the coast of Somalia. An act of pirate violence had never before been registered there.
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| Elena Espinosa. (Photo: MARM) |
The Txori Argi carries onboard four private security agents, who detected a suspicious vessel on Sunday, from which two small speedboats took off in the direction of the tuna vessel.
Once the manoeuvre was made out, the Spanish ship activated the established security protocol immediately, while it initiated its flight at full throttle, the Faro de Vigo reports.
The security agents fired a first dissuasive burst of rounds when the pirates were two miles away, and a second wave - when the delinquents were only one mile away – managed to get them to return to their vessel.
According to sources from the vessel and Inpesca, the shipowner company with headquarters in Bermeo (Biscay), the crew is found well and no one sustained any harm.
In other news, the president of
the Inter-Professional Tuna Organisation (INTERATUN), Juan Manuel Vieites, said to Europa Press that the attacks on vessels in Indian Ocean waters will follow “consecutively ” over these weeks because the monsoon season has ended and nice weather has begun.
“I understand the sensitivity that any shipbuilder can have at these times. They know that the government has never stopped working from an internal level, as well as from the United Nations so that we can finally end the problem that we have in the Indian Ocean,” Minister Espinosa said on the matter.
He admitted that it is not about an “easy matter that can be solved from one day to the next,” but stressed that between everyone they should try to "create a new way of life in Somalia that will lead us to the disappearance of piracy."
Related article:
- Somali pirates hijack Kenyan longliner
By Analia Murias
editorial@fis.com
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