Hang in there, mes amis

Before I even got around to writing my first Seychelles post, I received the frightening news that the ship on which I sailed, Le Ponant (pictured to the right shot from Picard Island within Aldabra Atoll), was taken by pirates off the coast of Somalia in the Gulf of Aden. According to a friend in Paris, the story is all over the French news (the ship is owned by a French company, and the crew is mostly French as well). It has also been picked up by just about every major news service outside of France, including the New York Times and CNN. However, I took heart in this report from an Australian site that notes Somali pirates typically treat their captives well in order to get a large ransom. I was also dismayed to read in this report that most Somali pirates are former fishermen, turned to piracy presumably in part due to the depletion of local fishery resources and the consequent inability to earn a sufficient living. It seems this may be a very real and, for me, personal manifestation of the problems with African fisheries described in my Janaury 27 post "The Tangled Web". Three of the pirates can be seen here.

I wish courage, strength, and safety to the officers and engineers, Bertrand and Arthur (the able barmen), chef Jean-Paul, maitre d' Mederic, Olga, Coralie, Celine, Elodie, Tom, and all of my friends aboard the ship. My thoughts are with you.