Source: El Mundo
While fishing in the Indian Ocean, the tuna vessel Albacan, property of Spanish boatowner Albacora Group, managed to evade another boarding attempt by a group of Somali pirates last week.
The attack took place some 260 miles off the coast, near the border between Kenya and Somalia. The tuna vessel crew detected the presence of a speedboat from where a grenade launcher was fired. It reached the hull of the vessel without causing major damage or injuries.
On board the tuna vessel Albacan were three security agents on board who were able to repel the pirate attack.
Inaki Latxaga, president of Albacore Group SA ensured that the crew is in perfect health, however he said that the half an hour -duration of the attack- "had been terrible."
Mr. Latxaga, speaking from the company’s headquarters in Bermeo (Bizkaia), informed that the company had held early contact with the 'Albacar' to receive the news of the day and that everything was going well, without any incidents.
Soon after, at about 08.00 am, they got a call from another vessel reporting the attack on the Albacan, however, for a period of 30 minutes they ould not connect with the 'Albacan'. "It was terrible half-hour because we did not know what had happened," Mr. Latxaga said.
Mr. Latxaga welcomed that "thank God everything went well" and there had been no personal injury
The president of the Albacore Group was told that once the crew detected the presence of a pirate boat, they proceeded with the protection measures which are foreseen for such cases.
The pirates, he explained, had openly attacked the boat by launching a grenade that created a whole in the ship's hull.
Immediately the security agents who were on board the tuna vessel and carrying heavy artillery, repelled the attached and fired back.
According to Mr. Latxaga, the tuna vessel had only suffered little damage caused by a small fire, which was immediately extinguished.
"What horrifies us," he acknowledged, is the fact that the pirate boat had come close enough to throw the grenade.
The Albacora Group has operated since 1984 in the Indian Ocean with a fleet of five tuna freezer vessels and three auxiliary ships.
For now, this Spanish company’s vessels have been the victims of two hijacking attempts on part of Somali pirates: on 9 September 2009 against the tuna vessel Intertuna II and on 30 October of that year against the auxiliary ship Iria Flavia.
Last February, the Big Frozen Tuna Vessels Producers Association (OPAGAC) informed the Spanish Navy that good climatologic conditions announced for March would cause ‘a rise in the activity of pirates' in Somali waters.
The calm of the sea notably facilitates attempts at boarding fishing boats and their subsequent hijacking, warned the entity.
After hearing the news, Spanish fishing ships planned to change the course set in Atlantic Ocean waters, in an effort to prevent Somali pirate hijack attempts while they work.
