Stinky Water Walls Sold as Pirate Shield

[xchrom]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-03/stinky-water-walls-sold-as-better-pirate-shield-than-bullets.html

Pirates may encounter a skunk- smelling water curtain or propeller-tangling ropes the next time they approach a U.S. merchant ship. A warning to turn away may be accompanied by an ear-splitting squeal, if not rounds from an AK-47.

Short of raising private armies, shipping companies will consider “anything to keep pirates off,” Deborah Hennen, a manager at Crowley Maritime Corp., said in an interview Nov. 1 after a demonstration in Baltimore of the latest anti-piracy equipment.

The event for shipping officials showcased technology that enhances or replaces armed security teams, which can cost $5,000 or more per day and are forbidden by some countries. It was organized by the U.S. Maritime Administration and the Ship Operations Cooperative Program, an industry group that includes maritime academies and shipping companies.

Piracy costs the international economy as much as $12 billion a year, and the maritime industry spends as much as $2.5 billion a year on deterrent and security equipment and services, according to a 2010 report by the One Earth Future Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Louisville, Colorado.



***stinky water walls!11

[FreakinDJ]

1. I see no reason to support Tyrannical Gangsters

I rather see harsh techniques of deterrent employed then the proliferation of roaming gangs of pirates with little or no regard for human life

Still would be better if the UN would get involved to protect the territorial fishing rights of these small countries who can't afford to patrol their own waters fending off Taiwanese trawlers who have depleted the fisheries. I am sure many of these would be pirates would prefer to feed their families by fishing with their boats

[saras]

2. You're about thirty years late for Somalia, but right on the money.

Piracy is rarely someone's first choice of career.