Modern-day pirates threaten the security of trade as well as ships and their crews. IN 2009, PANIC swept Spain. When pirates in the Indian Ocean hijacked Spanish trawler the Alakrana and its 36-strong crew, then its sister ship the Elai Alai, supplies of tuna were cut by almost two-thirds and there was an uproar in parliament. The Spanish might cope with the Euro crisis, but they can't live without their tuna. This sort of piracy regularly features in the headlines. Most reports are of attacks on vessels at sea off the coast of Somalia or, more recently, the west coast of Africa, but sea piracy is a worldwide phenomenon.
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