This photo taken on July 13, 2016, shows a vessel of the Philippine Coast Guard (front) conducting joint anti-piracy training with a Japan Coast Guard vessel in waters off Manila. (Kyodo)
SINGAPORE (Kyodo) -- Sea piracy incidents in Asia declined to only 40 cases in the first six months of 2018, down 15 percent from the same period last year and the fewest for that period in a decade, a sea piracy watchdog said Wednesday.
The figure was the lowest since 2009 when 43 cases were reported over the first half of the year, and one-third the decade high of 114 cases recorded in 2015, according to the ReCAAP Information Sharing Center operated by the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia.
ReCAAP is a Japanese initiative for inter-governmental cooperation to combat piracy in the region and has 20 member states.
"This is the lowest number of incidents in the last 10 years," ReCAAP Information executive director Masafumi Kuroki told a news conference. "If this trend continues, we hope that the annual number of incidents this year can be the lowest number in the last 10 years."
Overall, the incidents that occurred were also the least severe over the past decade.
"There was no incident of a serious nature such as the abduction of crew or oil cargo theft," Kuroki said. "This improvement is due to the efforts of all the stakeholders."
Most of the incidents took place within the territorial waters of countries in Asia.
However, Kuroki urged ships plying the region not to let their guard down, especially when operating in the Sulu-Celebes sea.
"We consider that the threat in the Sulu Celebes Sea is not eliminated," Kuroki said, noting there was one case of an attempted crew abduction in those waters in February and information that the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group planned an attack on shipping in that area in May.
Also noteworthy, sea piracy incidents in the Singapore Strait doubled to four in the first six months of this year from two in the same period last year.
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