5 comments

  • jeffybefffy519 55 minutes ago
    Somali pirates WERE fishermen before being pirates... They turned to piracy to combat other countries fishing their waters.
    • happyopossum 30 minutes ago
      That’s a great story, with very little attachment to reality.
      • infinite_spin 1 minute ago
        >> Foreign fishing has increased more than twenty-fold since 1981

        >> Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing by foreign fishing vessels in Somali waters has been problematic for decades .

        >> The central government collapsed in 1991, and the ensuing increase in foreign fishing became a justification for piracy against fishing vessels.

        (https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles...)

        Other areas of the world have had similar responses to foreign commercial fishing:

        >> In Southeast Asia, as competition for fish and other maritime resources intensified following the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997-1998, increases in industrial fish catch volumes by foreign fleets led to sharp increases in South China Sea pirate attacks organized by residents of villages reliant on small-scale fisheries

        (https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...)

        >> Piracy is a growing concern in Sierra Leone, particularly in the northern maritime areas. Foreign trawlers have been attacked and robbed of both their catch and personal effects. Most of the pirates are reported to be from Guinea.

        (https://wikileaks.jcvignoli.com/cable_09FREETOWN258)

        However, there is evidence that piracy is more likely to exist in places where illegal fishing has declined. (With the disclaimer that "this research does not refute the earlier-held notion that foreign trawlers produce dissatisfied local fishers who turn towards piracy as a defense against foreign intruders."

        (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096262982...)

      • dmbche 7 minutes ago
    • readthenotes1 38 minutes ago
      And then they turn to piracy for its own sake because they realized how lucrative it was
    • IncreasePosts 37 minutes ago
      No, the pirates are organized crime syndicates. They are not the same people who were fishing the waters 35 years ago
  • mikeatlas 50 minutes ago
    > Both things can be true.

    Ughhh I hear this like 5x a day now. It's the new emdashery.

    • helpfulclippy 13 minutes ago
      Unless someone is a structural engineer or something, I never want to hear the term "load-bearing" again.
      • victorhooi 8 minutes ago
        Aha...gold star =)...10 points to Gryffindor....well played, Sir.
  • Gensui 38 minutes ago
    [dead]
  • samlinnfer 50 minutes ago
    [flagged]
  • aha21 2 minutes ago
    [flagged]
    • epistasis 1 minute ago
      Spoken like a bigot that has never encountered the Somali community in Minnesota.
    • brendoelfrendo 1 minute ago
      Your racism belongs elsewhere.