Piracy has hurt the Seychellois economy and endangered the lives of fishermen, prompting the government to take bold action and forge international partnerships to protect its citizens.

Seychellois fishermen used to be notoriously secretive about their favoured fishing spots, but piracy has changed all that. Now, the government urges every fishing boat to install a vessel monitoring system in case of an attack.

“The international community forgot about Somalia for a very long time and it has been left in a state of anarchy and civil disorder,” says Joel Morgan, Minister of Environment, Home Affairs, Transport and Energy.

The Coast Guard has successfully carried out the dramatic rescues of some crews held by pirates in open water, but two fishermen who were recently abducted to Somalia with million-dollar ransom demands were not so lucky.

Seychelles is particularly vulnerable, as it relies heavily on the maritime domain for its economy. In response, the government developed action plans that attracted a number of international partners willing to support its maritime security capabilities.

The anti-piracy flagship of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) recently completed a port visit focused on NATO’s cooperation with the Coast Guard. Rear Admiral Gualtiero Mattesi, Commander of NATO’s counter-piracy task force, visited the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in the capital of Victoria.

The main islands are still safe, but fishing vessels can no longer go as far afield, while higher insurance costs on imported goods strike at the cost of living for local residents. Another blow to product prices comes from increased transit times in the perishable goods trade. Although there has been a jump in economic activity from warships coming in to make port, the once-thriving cruise ship industry is now virtually non-existent. Piracy is estimated to cost Seychelles some 4% of GDP.

But it is not just a local problem. With two-thirds of the world’s oil shipped through the Indian Ocean, piracy is a global challenge.

In November, President James Michel called on world leaders, including Prime Minister David Cameron, to undertake a comprehensive approach to solve the crisis. He proposed measures including increased support to peacekeeping forces within Somalia, in particular the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) in Mogadishu, targeted interventions against criminal and terrorist groups to supplant hubs of criminal activity, as well as several other measures to strengthen the maritime defence capacity of coastal states and improve patrolling and surveillance capabilities.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Paul Adam also notes that judicial and penal reform is an important component of the government’s strategy.

“Seychelles has been very successful in prosecuting pirates. We have revised all our legal instruments in line with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and modernised all our anti-piracy laws, having assembled a wider network to take action.”

Adam adds that an anti-piracy observatory will be established in collaboration with the UK as a regional intelligence sharing centre, which will examine pursuing criminal cases against individuals financing piracy.