Seamen the forgotten victims of rampant Somali piracy

ABU DHABI // There is no safety from pirates in the world's most dangerous shipping lanes, as increasingly bold Somali hijackers use "mother ships" to extend their range across the Gulf of Aden as far as the coast of Yemen. Much of the piracy started when fishermen from Somalia began extorting foreign fishing vessels for encroaching on their waters. The range of their speedboats was only about 80km in the 300km-wide gulf. But as the piracy became more lucrative and organised, their range increased.