James Stout

It does regulate somewhat the weaponry that the Marshall Islands flagged boats could have.

I think the reason there are so many boats flagged in the Marshall Islands, at least in part, is because half the world's tuna is caught in Marshall Islands waters.

So a lot of those vessels will probably have, they will choose to have the Marshall Islands flag because it allows them to fish in territorial waters would be my guess.

I've met some contractors on Marshallese boats.

I met a guy who was a helicopter pilot for a tuna fishing boat in a bar once.

I guess they fly the helicopter to look for the fish, and then the boat comes and catches the fish.

Yeah, fascinating world.

I don't think it's a highly enjoyable job, but I think people do it to get their flight hours up so they can do other things.

So because of this legal, it's not really a legal gray area, it's just the fact that these people are not regulated in any way.

People can carry weapons on ships.

Now, in the case of piracy of Somalia specifically, the United Nations did authorize military action against Somali pirates and between 20 and 40 boats were

were there at any given time in the next four years trying to police piracy.

But that's not enough boats because every boat that is moving through that area is at risk for piracy.

And pirates can use very small boats to board very big boats, right?

And unless that very big boat is somehow able to defend itself, all they need is a few weapons and the ability to get on board and they're hard to track, right?

Yeah.

I've heard from people who did contracting in the pre-2008 era that basically they put barbed wire on the edge of the boat to stop people getting on.

And then they had the LRAD, like the, what's that, long range?

The sound weapon.

Yeah, the sound weapon.