INTERNATIONAL Chamber of Shipping (ICS) chairman Spyros Polemis says naval forces deployed against pirates off Somalia are too paltry for success to be expected, like putting a band-aid on a gaping wound.
"The use of private guards does not mean that military forces are no longer needed. Far from it - they are needed more than ever and should be greatly increased in number," he told delegates attending the Maritime Cyprus conference in Limassol.
Mr Polemis also said his ICS is in discussion with EUNAVFOR and NATO about the possibility of blockade of the Somali coast and tackling pirate "motherships".
Mr Polemis also said the problem would be taken more seriously if seafarers held hostage were "Americans or Europeans", reported Tanker Operator.
"The fundamental problem is the lack of navy ships that are committed to protecting shipping - a band aid on a gaping wound, although the navies do an excellent job under the circumstances and we commend them for this," he said.
"By their own admission, the military advise that no ship is completely safe. Sadly, one can only conclude from the current response of many governments that those thousands of seafarers that have so far been captured have simply had the wrong nationality," Mr Polemis said.
"If they were all Americans or Europeans, the governments' attitude might have been different. It is really unacceptable that so many governments seem to feel that the current situation can somehow be tolerated and that a box has been ticked by making a relatively small number of navy ships available to police Somalia's waters and the entire Indian Ocean," he said.
"We appreciate that governments have many competing priorities, but I am afraid that they still seem to be lacking a coherent strategy to tackle the pirates head on," he said.
Mr Polemis said that increasing use of armed guards represents a failure by the international community to find a solution while admitting that their employ can reduce the risks of capture.