Update: CNN video about US Navy, Somali pirates and North Korean vessel.
While it fun to joke about being a pirate on International Talk Like a Pirate Day, for the other 364 days of the year pirates are no joking matter, especially for mariners around the world.
Tonight CNN reports that the guided missile destroyer USS Arleigh Burke entered Somalia national waters in hot pursuit of a Japanese ship that had been hijacked by pirates. The Golden Mori is laden with a highly flammable and deadly cargo of benzene. CNN reported that he USS Arleigh Burke received permission from the Somali government to enter their territorial waters on this mission.
Fellow maritime bloggers gCaptain.com and Maritime Compass have recently posted about pirates and Smithsonian and National Geographic magazines each published pirate articles in September and October, respectively.
CNN also recently reported that pirate attacks increased 14% worldwide over the first 9 months of 2007.
Scott Schonauer wrote an interesting article in yesterday’s Stars and Stripes entitled Coast Guard trains Navy in ship-boarding tactics.
While Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow may be funny and charming; make no mistake about it, pirates are a deadly matter.
Technorati tags: piracy, US Navy, Smithsonian, National Geographic, CNN
Sea-Fever blog 
i’m with you: i don’t get the current pop culture fascination with pirates. i remember when airplane hijackers were referred to as air pirates. today, no questions, they’d all be called terrorists. bin laden = blackbeard… with dye of course.