In early February 2005, the Piracy Reporting Centre of the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) released its annual report. In a press conference on February 7, 2005, IMB director, Captain Pottengal Mukundan highlighted the fact that despite the decrease in the total number maritime attacks from 445 in 2003 to 325 in 2004, pirates and seafaring gangs were much more deadly. The waters off the coast of Nigeria , rich in oil tanker traffic, were the scene of 15 deaths ? fully half of the 30 reported piracy-related fatalities worldwide in 2004 and approaching the total 2003 worldwide toll of 21. Chemical and crude oil tankers as well as cargo and bulk carriers remain the preferred targets of pirates.

Although cargo theft is often the primary motive behind these maritime attacks, there appears to be a disturbing trend toward ransom kidnapping. In 2004, at least 86 crewmembers were taken hostage, mostly in the Malacca Strait and Bangladesh , the report said. While many of the attacks in 2004 were registered in the Nigerian coastal waters, the wider west coast of Africa, and the South China Sea, the IMB report suggests piracy is truly a global problem, presenting accounts of attacks in the waters off India, South America, east Africa, and the Middle East. Nonetheless, a full 25% of the total 2004 attacks took place in the Malacca Strait between Indonesia and Malaysia . Across Asia, Indonesia was hardest hit suffering 17 attacks in the port of Tanjung Priok and another 13 in the oil port of Balikpapan.