In the fight against maritime piracy, humans pay the most with their lives. Ask families of captured crew about the months of agony and sleepless nights. Some ships like the MV Iceberg 1 have been missing for over two years — the longest in the captivity of Somali pirates. Efforts to free others like the MV Albedo have run into rough weather, with pirates upping their demands and threatening the kin of their victims.

The fight against Somali pirates, responsible for hijacking about 170 vessels in four years, is starting to draw in British banks, until now a major source of the stacks of dollars used to pay ransoms.

Somali pirates seizing Indian Ocean ships were responsible for at least 35 hostage deaths in 2011, a report showed on Friday, with levels of violence rising.The number of prisoners taken by pirates fell to 555, at least, in 2011 from 645 in 2010, the report by the U.S.-based One Earth Future foundation and International Maritime Bureau said.

The number of successful Somali pirate attacks has fallen but international navies must not drop their guard and keep up the pressure, the commander of the EU mission said.British Rear Admiral Duncan Potts warned that the gains made against pirates off the Horn of Africa were reversible and that the fight against piracy would only succeed once governance and security improve in Somalia.

The release of 22 hostages on the MV Albedois in jeopardy because of a dispute over the amount of ransom money that has been promised and raised, negotiators said yesterday.The Malaysian-flagged cargo vessel was seized by Somali pirates in November 2010 in the Gulf of Aden after setting sail for Kenya from Jebel Ali.

The number of pirate attacks between January and May this year has reduced considerably when compared to the same period last year."Piracy is weakening and this is evident by the statistics. In 2011, the total attacks between January and May was 176, while during the same period this year it is 30.

During the reporting period of 07 to 13 June 2012 the number of piracy incidents in the High Risk Area (HRA) has remained low, with no piracy incident reported.

An incident in the Gulf of Oman has once again focused attention on the difficulties under which ships with armed guards embarked can find themselves in these pirate-infested waters. Pirates, for obvious reasons, are moving further and further from their bases on the coast of Somalia and are tending to blend in to the fishing activities that are encountered in these seas.

Piracy off the coast of Somalia remains a critical issue for the United States, the international community, and the global economy.Piracy off the coast of Somalia remains a critical issue for the United States, the international community, and the global economy, said U.S. Principal Deputy Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Thomas Kelly. 

During the reporting period of 31 May to 06 June 2012 the number of piracy incidents in the High Risk Area (HRA) has remained low, with only one pirate approach reported.