“Are 21st-century pirates a threat to passengers on cruise ships?” It's a question I've been frequently asked, particularly in the wake (pun intended) of a recent appearance I made as a guest expert on E! Entertainment's TRUE HOLLYWOOD STORY INVESTIGATES: DEADLY WATERS in which I discussed global piracy, pirate weapons and tactics.

Even my mom, who often enjoys cruising around the world with my stepfather, has expressed concern over what appears to be a recent spate of pirate attacks against luxury liners and other such vessels. And the two of them are planning a cruise for the fall.

True. Pirate attacks and the threat of piracy are terrifying to passengers and crews aboard luxury liners, yachts, smaller recreation boats, commercial fishing vessels, as well as the big freighters. But piracy, which has existed for thousands of years, is no-more, no-less dangerous than it has ever been (relatively speaking, considering the weapons and tactics of pirates and the weapons and tactics of navies and coast guards), and attacks are probably no more frequent relative to the seafaring population at any time in history. It's just that acts of piracy are more accurately reported today.

As far as cruise ships in particular are concerned: Sure, they've been targets, but they are not usually the targets of choice for 21st-century buccaneers, becoming even less so over the past several months.

I've determined there are five primary reasons why:

1) THE PIRATE REALM: Pirates generally don't prey on ships beyond the pirates' realm of relative safety. Most pirates have a healthy fear of naval forces like those of the U.S. and UK, which have been aggressively patrolling for pirates in recent months. And most luxury liners in 2006 are avoiding waters known to be pirate infested.

2) DIFFICULTY IN BOARDING: Cruise ships are very large and thus very difficult to board, even with grappling hooks and rope ladders. There is usually a great distance from the point of the waterline to the point of the primary weather deck.

3) TOO MANY PASSENGERS: Numbers of passengers -- from a few hundred to a few thousand -- aboard cruise ships are considered by pirates to be unmanageable, thus the threat to pirates of being overwhelmed by passengers is often not worth the risk.

4) SHIPBOARD SECURITY: Many cruise ships today are staffing their shipboard security teams with former commandos and special warfare types. Consequently, pirates on-the-attack do not know if they are going up against rent-a-cops or U.S. Navy SEALs.

5) NEW TECHNOLOGIES: Cruise companies today are equipping their ships with a variety of counter-pirate technologies, including:

• High-voltage electrical fences fixed along ships' railings as deterrent barriers.
• Long Range Acoustic Devices (LRADs) -- essentially “sonic cannon” used to beam extremely loud streams of non-lethal noise at attacking pirates. Sonic cannon, which have been used by U.S. ground forces to clear buildings in Iraq, were employed with great success against pirates off Somalia in November 2005 (I'll get to that in a moment).
• Devices capable of beaming bowel-movement-inducing sound waves in the direction of attacking pirates. Sounds odd, but it works.
• Metal and explosives detectors. These are used to deter would-be insiders who might slip weapons or explosive materials aboard ship in hopes of providing assistance to externally attacking pirates.
• Powerful foaming agents and extreme glues that can be sprayed onto decks prior to a boarding by pirates.
• Searchlights to scan the seas at night.
• Fire-hoses to repel boarders.
• Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). These pilotless aircraft fitted with powerful cameras may be launched from ships in order to provide shipboard security teams with “real-time” imagery of approaching pirate vessels.

Now, this does not mean cruise ships are no longer targets. Pirates have indeed attacked luxury liners in the recent past; the best-known attack having been launched against the Seabourne Spirit, a German-flagged cruise ship that was targeted off Somalia on the morning of November 5, 2005.

In that incident, two speedboat-loads of pirates launched from a larger “mother” vessel, attacked the Spirit firing AK-47 assault rifles and at least one rocket-propelled grenade (RPG).

The quick thinking Captain Sven Erik Pederson, dressed only in his bathrobe, ordered all passengers into a large dining area while he and his crew performed a series of evasive maneuvers, including an attempt to ram the attacking boats.

As Captain Pederson was maneuvering the Spirit; his chief of security, a former Ghurka soldier manned the sonic cannon and began blasting its “hellishly loud” beam of noise at the attacking boats (Nepalese Ghurka's are counted among the world's toughest, best-trained soldiers).

Together, captain, crew, and the former Ghurka (though slightly wounded in the attack) beat back the pirates. The U.S. Navy later removed an unexploded RPG lodged in a section of the ship's bulkhead.

The reason the Spirit was attacked was threefold: The ship was isolated. It was in pirate-infested waters, and the pirates greatly underestimated the captain and crew.

Soft-touch targets in most cases are smaller yachts and pleasure boats and large freighters, none of which have large, difficult-to-control passenger numbers or adequately trained security forces.

In the case of smaller boats, pirates will often spot them in isolated waters, withdraw out of sight, and hold beyond the horizon until nightfall. Sometimes they will approach the targeted vessel in broad daylight, wave or salute as if they are friendly (all the while casing the vessel), then withdraw only to attack minutes later in greater numbers and with guns blazing. Once aboard, they kill, steal whatever they may get their hands on, then make their getaway.

Freighter attack-tactics are often different.

Once aboard, pirates will bind or kill the crew; seize control of the freighter; change the ship's name, registration number, and logbooks; then sail the vessel into a pirate-friendly port. At that point, the pirates will either sell the ship and its cargo, or demand ransom for the ship or any surviving crewmembers.

Modern pirates are well equipped for their dark work, utilizing everything from personal computers to satellite phones and GPS receivers. They also have long-range telescopes, all manner of automatic weapons, grenades, knives, and boarding tools. Their attacking platforms include converted fishing boats and hopped-up inflatables liked those used by Navy SEALs and Recon Marines.

They get around.

Worldwide, the number of pirate attacks as reported by the International Maritime Bureau in the first quarter of 2006 was 61, slightly higher than the 56 attacks reported in the same quarter of 2005. But no attacks in the first three months of 2006 were reported off Indonesia, which was one of the world's most dangerous pirate hotspots in 2005. The decline of pirate activity off Indonesia is a testament to the coordination of intelligence-gathering and law enforcement efforts between Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore.

The most dangerous areas presently appear to be the waters off Somalia (where there is no legitimate national law enforcement structure) and believe it or not, Iraq (There, ground-based bandits -- in the face of coalition ground forces -- have taken to the sea). But the U.S. Navy is now actively involved in counter-piracy operations in both the blue waters off Somalia and Iraq, as well as the littorals of the Iraqi coastline. Pirate attacks have also been reported off West Africa, India, Bangladesh, South America, and in the Caribbean. And state navies and coast guards are increasing joint efforts in those areas as well.

Despite popular culture's romanticization of pirates -- particularly the Blackbeards and Captain Kidds of the Golden Age (1692-1725) -- pirates have always been ruthless brigands hell-bent on theft. That hasn't changed. What has changed is the technological sophistication, which often matches that of coastal authorities; and of greater concern is the terrorist connection.

Granted, pirates and terrorists have different primary objectives. Pirates are thieves and killers, who care nothing for the limelight. Terrorists are mass murderers bent on inflicting mass casualties and influencing mass audiences. But both employ similar tactics and have similar sub-objectives -- illegal arms trading and the development of secret bases of operation -- and both operate outside of international law. Thus there is the very real possibility that global piracy is creating a new oceangoing realm into which terrorist cells can safely and effectively move. That is the most frightening prospect of all.

This article first appeared in NavySEALs.com