A IMO meeting on pirates

Set out here, the International Maritme Organization will be addressing piracy soon... Kenya seems to be getting concerned about its cruise ship business:

According to Ondego, five cruise vessels, which are expected to call to Mombasa Port between this month and January next year have expressed security concerns over the Somali incident.

Separately, the national co-ordinator of the Seafarers Assistance Programme, Mr Andrew Mwangura, welcomed the decision by IMO to draft a resolution to address the Somali pirate crisis.

Mwangura said SAP was investigating reports that pirates were using a mother ship to carry out the attacks.

Mwangura said the UN should impose an embargo on the export of charcoal and fish products from Somalia.

"The UN should urgently impose an embargo on the export of charcoal and fish from Somalia because these have been used to finance pirates. A ship can pay as much as US$150,000 to pirates to be allowed to fish in Somalia," he said.

Mwangura said the embargo may lead to the stabilisation of the National Transitional Government of Somalia.

Mwangura said the mother ship was spotted on July 27 and November 5 when the cruise ship destined to Mombasa was attacked.

"The mother ship is quite big and this suggests that piracy in Somalia is an organised business. The ship launches boats in the high seas which in turn attack ships," he said.

He said it was impossible for the boats to sail 70 nautical miles or 170km in the international waters because they could run out of fuel.

Bubblehead, who has some experience in them, suggests a submarine might be a good tool to find the Mother Ship (you might also see my comment #2 here).