Maritime News & Business Times: Reported piracy incidents in the Gulf of Guinea have fallen sharply over the past few years. What changed?
Task Force Commander: Coordinated naval patrols across several littoral states, faster information sharing when a suspicious vessel is spotted, and frankly more consistent presence in the areas that used to see the most incidents. No single country did this alone.
Maritime News & Business Times: Should shipowners ease the precautions they have taken in recent years?
Task Force Commander: Not yet. The improvement is real, but conditions that made the area attractive to criminal activity — economic pressure onshore, long stretches of coastline that are hard to monitor continuously — have not disappeared. We would rather see owners maintain best-management practices and have incidents keep trending down than see complacency reverse the progress.
Maritime News & Business Times: What is the task force's current priority?
Task Force Commander: Sustaining the information-sharing arrangements between navies. That coordination is the main reason the numbers have improved, and it is also the easiest thing to let slip once a threat feels less urgent.