[16] On March 17 2024 Indian naval commandos led a rescue operation taking back control over the vessel about 500 km off the coast of Somalia bringing the 35 Somali pirates to prosecution in Mumbai.

It also received significant foreign investment funds for various fishery development projects, as the Somali fishing industry was considered to have a lot of potential owing to its unexploited marine stocks.

[33] On the advice of lawyers, the Royal Navy and other international naval forces have often released suspected pirates that they have captured because, although the men are frequently armed, they have not been caught engaging in acts of piracy and have thus not technically committed a crime.

"[66][67] Somali President Sharif Ahmed pledged at the conference that he would fight piracy and to loud applause said that "it is our duty to pursue these criminals not only on the high seas, but also on terra firma".

[72] Omer, one of the pirates holding the British couple, claimed the seven men were fishermen, but a European Union Naval Force spokesman stated they were captured as they fired AK-47 assault rifles at a French fishing vessel.

[79] In late February 2011, piracy targeting smaller yachts and collecting ransom made headlines when four Americans were killed aboard their vessel, Quest, by their captors, while a military ship shadowed them.

[87] On 21 January 2012, while researching a book on piracy via a Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting grant; journalist Michael Scott Moore was abducted in Galkayo by a local gang of pirates, who subsequently demanded $20 million.

[89] On 25 January 2012, Navy SEALs parachuted from a C-130 Hercules twelve miles north of the Somali town of Adado, Galguduud, where pirates held hostages in order to seek ransom for them.

[86] The SEALs, traveling on foot from the drop zone, attacked the compound, and engaged in battle, killing all nine pirates and rescuing two aid workers, Jessica Buchanan and Poul Hagen Thisted held captive since the previous October.

Suspected to have been carried out by the same group of pirates, they were tracked down by RFA Fort Victoria, supported by HMAS Melbourne, ROKS Wang Geon, European Union flagship HNLMS Johan de Witt, and a Seychelles-based maritime patrol aircraft from Luxembourg.

Detained pirates also indicated to UNODC officials that some measure of cooperation with Al-Shabaab militants was necessary, as they have increasingly launched maritime raids from areas in southern Somalia controlled by the insurgent outfit.

[2] A combination of root causes can be attributed to the pervasive presence of piracy off the coast of Somalia including; geography, weak law enforcement and corruption as well as economic factors.

Most of these drivers display considerable overlap just like they can be viewed as derivative effects of land based problems[131] The following section breaks down some of the identified root causes for the pervasiveness of piracy in the region.

One of the most vital shipping routes of the world takes international trade across the Western Indian Ocean through the Bab el-Mandeb strait connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden making it the perfect strategic place for pirates to operate.

[144] Corrupt actors can help facilitate the piracy activities by turning a blind eye to or providing means for the pirates to operate and thereby also taking share in the multimillion-dollar business.

[146] Furthermore, according to Bueger & Edmunds, studies of piracy operations in Somalia show that laundering of profits, protecting from other criminals and supplying and recruitment are among the elements pirates depend on[132] The weak law enforcement occurs as a result of the last decades instability and civil unrest.

The inability to control the maritime territory and perform security tasks left the 3,330 km coastline of Somalia unpatrolled, giving rise to several forms of blue crimes.

In continuation of the actions from the local coastal communities and fishermen against the illegal fishing by foreign fishers the element of cultural acceptability and legitimation also plays a significant role.

[119] A 2010 report suggested that piracy off the coast of Somalia led to a decrease of revenue for Egypt as fewer ships use the Suez Canal (estimated loss of about $642 million), impeded trade with neighboring countries, and negatively impacted tourism and fishing in the Seychelles.

[158][151] According to Admiral Terence E. McKnight, ransom demands and payments have risen exponentially and the financers and pirates decided they are willing to wait as long as it takes to receive "high seven-figure payouts".

The latter contributions have been estimated at $1.3–$2 billion a year, exponentially dwarfing pirate ransom proceeds, which total only a few million dollars annually and are difficult to track in terms of spending.

A comparison has been made with the situation in Tanzania further to the south, which is also affected by fishing by foreign ships and generally lacks the means to effectively protect and regulate its territorial waters.

[167] According to many interviewed maritime security firms, ship owner groups, lawyers and insurance companies, fear of pirate attacks has increased the likelihood of violent encounters at sea, as untrained or overeager vessel guards have resorted to shooting indiscriminately without first properly assessing the actual threat level.

According to Johann Hari, the independent Somali news-site WardherNews found that 70 percent "strongly supported the piracy as a form of national defence of the country's territorial waters".

[173] Following the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004, allegations have emerged that after the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in late 1991, Somalia's long, remote shoreline was used as a dump site for the disposal of toxic waste.

The huge waves which battered northern Somalia after the tsunami are believed to have stirred up tonnes of nuclear and toxic waste that was illegally dumped in Somali waters by several European firms – front companies created by the Italian mafia.

"[171][178] At the same time, foreign trawlers began illegally fishing Somalia's seas, with an estimated $300 million of tuna, shrimp, and lobster being taken each year, depleting stocks previously available to local fishermen.

Article 57 of the Convention in turn outlines the limit of that jurisdiction:"The exclusive economic zone shall not extend beyond 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured".

[185]According to Amedeo Policante, a researcher from Goldsmiths College, University of London: "The devastating effect of these types of corporate-led form of capital accumulation cannot be overstated in a region where, according to the most recent reports of the UNEP, over 30 million people are dependent on maritime and coastal resources for their daily livelihoods.

Between 2009 and 2010, the government of the autonomous Puntland region in northeastern Somalia enacted a number of reforms and pre-emptive measures as a part of its officially declared anti-piracy campaign.