West can help 'eradicate pirates'
The International Maritime Bureau estimates the cost of piracy to the shipping industry to be anywhere from $1bn to $16bn a year.
And the centre of modern piracy is off the coast of the Somali region of Puntland.
A fleet of ships from Europe, Russia, China and Japan operates in those waters to counter piracy, but still the attacks go on.
Getting tough
In the latest attacks two dhows were taken and there was an unsuccessful attempt to hijack a 250,000 tonne Liberian-registered oil tanker.
The Somali state barely exists, but in January, Abdirahman Mohamud Farole, was elected president of what he describes as the Puntland state of Somalia.
He has vowed to get tough with the pirates. On a visit to London he told me teh 大象传媒's Roger Hearing how he planned to do it.
First broadcast on 14 July 2009