Chapter 929: Many Pirates in the Gulf of Guinea

Because the location Xiao Peng was going to this time was close to the Gulf of Guinea and might even go there. So they had weapons on board, and they were heavy weapons.

The ocean is always full of dangers. In addition to weather factors, there are also dangers from people, that is, pirates.

The once-famous Somali pirates have largely vanished. After all, with naval escort fleets from various countries patrolling the area daily, the Somali pirates are afraid of death, so they've largely avoided showing up, with no incidents of piracy reported for two consecutive years.

But what about the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa? The once-popular "Gold Coast" has become a "sea of pirates." And the pirates there are even more aggressive. Just how aggressive? Last year, 95% of pirate kidnappings for ransom occurred in the Gulf of Guinea. Judging by current trends, it won't be long before the world's escort fleets shift from the Gulf of Aden to the Gulf of Guinea.

This situation occurred because of oil.

The Gulf of Guinea doesn't look very large on a map, but it stretches from Libya in the west to Gabon in the east, with its coastline encompassing more than a dozen countries, including Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria! Seventy percent of Africa's proven oil reserves are in these countries.

However, oil hasn't brought much income to these countries, and these benefits have nothing to do with ordinary poor people. The gap between the rich and the poor in West African countries is quite large. What do the poor do? Rob! Robbery always makes money faster than hard work, right? Therefore, there are more and more pirates here.

The pirates here originally targeted oil tankers, but now they have started attacking all types of ships and kidnapping crew members for ransom in order to make money.

Despite the sheer number of countries surrounding the Gulf of Guinea and its abundant oil reserves, the navies of each nation are incredibly weak, lacking any decent coast guards. Even if they did exist, their weapons and equipment would be inferior to those of the pirates. The pirates can earn money and use it to bribe them, so the government often turns a blind eye to these pirates.

Furthermore, there are many issues between these countries. For example, Nigeria and Cameroon are still arguing over the sovereignty of the Bakassi Peninsula, and neither side is able to crack down on the pirates living there.

And what's most infuriating? For example, some piracy incidents in Nigeria occur in inland waterways, which puts them within Nigerian territory. Sending troops there would be a violation of another country's sovereignty. And Nigeria's crackdown on piracy is essentially ineffective. Last year alone, dozens of Chinese sailors were kidnapped and held for ransom by pirates in the Gulf of Guinea.

Although Xiao Peng was heading to the South Atlantic Anomaly, they couldn't stay at sea the entire time; they still needed to make supplies. The closest resupply point was naturally the countries along the Gulf of Guinea. This meant Xiao Peng's trip was somewhat unsafe.

To prevent piracy, Xiao Peng's ships were equipped with heavy weaponry. Each ship had two American GAU-19 triple-barreled 12.7mm machine guns. As a NATO ally of the United States, Germany had no trouble acquiring several GAU-19 triple-barreled machine guns. It wasn't exactly high-tech; anyone with the money could acquire it, and Xiao Peng certainly had plenty of it.

Many people think that warships now have such advanced weapons, including naval guns, torpedoes, and missiles, so why do they still need to be equipped with machine guns?

That's what the Americans thought back then. They thought machine guns were useless. The fate of the USS Cole, an Aegis destroyer, a few years ago was a slap in the face for them.

The USS Cole, commissioned in 1996 with a fully loaded displacement of 9,000 tons, was undoubtedly the most advanced destroyer on Earth at the time. However, in 2000, while resupplying in Aden, Yemen, a rubber boat carrying a bomb collided directly with the Cole's port side, resulting in 17 deaths, 39 injuries, and several missing persons.

The reason for this was that they had no means of defense when the rubber boat hit them. Although the ship had weapons such as cannons, missiles, and torpedoes, they were really powerless against such a small rubber boat. Since then, all active US warships have been equipped with small-caliber automatic cannons or heavy machine guns, the most common of which are GAU-19 three-barrel machine guns and MK38 25mm caliber machine guns.

Xiao Peng’s ship was clearly a civilian ship, so why was it equipped with a heavy machine gun?

Xiao Peng wasn't the first to install machine guns on civilian ships. About thirty years ago, many Chinese cargo ships sailing to Southeast Asia were equipped with heavy machine guns. At that time, the ship's political commissar had a crucial job: keeping the keys and ammunition for the heavy machine guns.

In those days there were many more pirates on the sea than there are today.

However, Xiao Peng's ship isn't equipped with heavy firepower for this reason alone. His ship now has another identity: it's an EU IUU patrol vessel, empowered to monitor illegal fishing.

IUU fishing is illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. To protect fishery resources, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations adopted the International Plan of Action to Prevent, Deter, and Eliminate IUU Fishing in 2001 to eradicate this practice.

However, IUU fishing is still a major problem that countries around the world need to face. After all, the profits from IUU fishing are too great.

The costs incurred by legal fishermen are far higher than those incurred by IUU fishers. IUU fishers can circumvent regulations and reduce costs by underreporting their catches, discarding low-value fish, and transferring fish at sea. Furthermore, the lack of coastal management in countries like Africa creates a haven for IUU fishing.

Although IUU fishing carries responsibilities if caught, such as financial penalties, confiscation of fishing gear, confiscation of fishing vessels, confiscation of catches, etc., these are insignificant compared to the huge profits from IUU fishing. In the face of profits, many people choose to take risks.

This kind of IUU fishing causes great damage to fishery resources, so it is basically like a rat crossing the street that everyone shouts and kills.

But let's be honest, no matter how "everyone can kill IUU", it is not something Xiao Peng can control. Then how come Xiao Peng's ship is equipped with heavy machine guns and has the qualifications to arrest IUU?

There is no way. This is a resolution passed by the European Union: because Xiao Peng's ship travels everywhere, they commissioned Xiao Peng to investigate the current IUU fishing situation in various waters around the world. However, after all, IUU fishing is illegal. In order to ensure Xiao Peng's safety, his ship is equipped with heavy firepower.

The 12.7mm heavy machine gun is useless against warships, but what about IUU fishing or pirate ships? This is a "big killer"!

To put it simply, Xiao Peng's two ships are legal "privateers" of the European Union!