Piracy is widespread, and a threat to our well-ordered ordered lives, those in the shipping industry say.

It is also an issue that at least one Bermuda resident, Jens Alers, knows a lot about as the company for which he is managing director, Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, looks after 700 ships and 17,000 seafarers who ply the oceans of world. The company manages tankers, container ships and VLCC, or Very Large Container Ships.

He will be discussing modern piracy this evening at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute as part of a panel that will include Dr David Saul and James Watlington. The event will include a talk on the history of the policing of piracy by William Zuill, the author of The Pirate Menace, a book on the subject.

Somalia is the nation most people associate with modern piracy, but it has been in the news this week with media reports that Saudi Arabia and Iran are intervening in Yemen since the Houthis launched a ground offensive, capturing much of the city of Aden, which is the gateway to the Suez Canal. Iran dispatched a naval destroyer and another vessel to the Gulf of Aden on the Red Sea yesterday, calling it part of an anti-piracy campaign safeguarding naval routes for vessels. NATO has also been active combating piracy in the region.

The Suez Canal is crucial for shipping. The artificial waterway in Egypt connects the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea.

It allows ships to travel between Europe and South Asia without navigating around Africa, reducing the sea voyage distance between Europe and India by 4,300 miles. In 2012, 17,225 vessels traversed the canal, or about 47 per day.

Mr Alers, who is also the German Consul for Bermuda, met with The Royal Gazette this week in his Hamilton office. He said: “Bernard Schulte deals with piracy directly. It’s been a risk for more than decade, ever since Somalia became what is referred to as ‘a failed state’ with no control over its enormous coastline.”

He explained the Somalian coastline stretches from the north of Aden to Kenya to its south.

“It is as long as the eastern seaboard,” he said, and explained there is no coastguard and no policing of those waters.

The people of the region are poor, and are typically fishermen. Piracy, he explained, began when international fisheries began to operate in the waters off the country, and the fishermen wished to do harm to those operations. “That was the genesis of piracy,” he said.

It quickly became lucrative, and warlords in the region became engaged. The activity of the pirates burgeoned. “At one time there were 850 seafarers captured on ships,” he said.

“Bernard Schulte is a remarkable company with 700 ships, and they are exposed to all these threats — in West Africa, the Straits of Aden, and Strait of Malacca.”

The 2009 hijacking by Somali pirates of the US-flagged MV Maersk Alabama, which was made into a film entitled Captain Phillips, is among the most famous of incidents in the region, but Mr Alers called it “an exception”.

“The pirates attacked a container ship, which is fast, has a high freeboard, and was flying a US flag — so it brought on the naval power of the US.”

The usual target are tankers, which have a low freeboard and are slower than most other ships.

Once the ships are captured, ransoms are demanded, and the amounts have ranged from $150,000 to the highest payout of more than $6 million. “Between 2000 and 2015, at least $350 million has been paid to piracy operations in Somalia.

“It is very lucrative in a country where a dollar goes a long way,” he said.

This criminal activity is so well organised that there is a ‘broker’ based in a northern province of the country, Mr Alers explained.

When a ship is captured by pirates, he will call the insurance companies and the Protection and Indemnity Clubs (P&I Clubs), and they pick up the phone on the other end and negotiate the ransom.

He explained that when a payment has been agreed, a helicopter flies the cash in and drops it on the tanker.

While paying the ransom may solve the immediate problem, he said: “The more money the pirates gain, the more they are able to project further into the Indian Ocean.” He explained they have become increasingly sophisticated, using fishing vessels they have captured as ‘mother ships’ from which they launch attacks using fast, smaller boats.

Authorities are beginning to get to grips with the issue in Somalian waters, and the problem is not as serious as it has been.

“The US, China, Germany and Nato countries have limited piracy in Somalia during the past few years. It is much reduced,” he said. Another reason why it has declined is because shipping companies are protecting themselves, with armed protection teams on board. “Often they don’t have to shoot — they just show they are on board.”

Another system is to travel in convoys protected by naval vessels as they plough through the waters of a high risk region.

When the risk is imminent, pressure hoses can be used to hose down pirates as they attempt to board, and crews will employ preventive measures to stop the use of their grappling irons.

Another successful method has been the introduction of ‘citadels’ on board ships. If a ship is attacked by pirates, the crew can lock themselves into the citadel, which is secure and locked off from the rest of ship.

“It has everything the crew needs — water, food, telecommunications — so you can run the ship from the citadel, even if the pirates are on the deck and on the bridge.

“It’s been tested many times — twice by ships in our group,” he said.

The problem is not over. “Now we have other failing countries,” he said. West Africa is troubled area, and the Strait of Malacca, through which about 60 per cent of the world’s marine traffic traverses, is also a high risk area.

“If you do something that chokes off trade, it will affect economies,” he said.

“And the Strait of Malacca, West Africa and Somalia are three of the most important choke points.”

The lecture and panel discussion begins at 7.30pm at Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute. To reserve tickets call 295-4207.