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DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Now then, the seas around Somalia are amongst the most dangerous in the world. Pirates have been responsible for over 500 attacks on vessels in the area since 2009 but are those waters getting any safer? In a moment I’ll speak to Rear Admiral Bob Tarrant, he’s the man in charge of the EU’s anti-piracy operations around Somalia. First though, to give you a taste of the challenges faced by ships in that area, here is a clip from the new Tom Hanks film, Captain Phillips. It tells the true story about the hijacking of a container ship in 2009. [Film clip]

DM: A very good morning to Rear-Admiral Bob Tarrant. That is fictional of course but it gives a sense one guesses of how these hijackings are actually carried out, the confusion, the terror?

BOB TARRANT: Dermot, they certainly do. These are very violent acts, they are violent criminal gangs who are coming up to you. They may be young men but young men armed with AK47s and RPGs, that’s a dangerous cocktail. The film depicts I think quite rightly how close to the edge of control these people are and how under pressure they are to deliver for the kingpins ashore, so it is an extraordinary story and of course Greengrass and Hanks really bring it home with their direction and really very sympathetic portrayal of Captain Phillips.

DM: How much of it is still going on? It seems to have slipped slightly down the news agenda a bit, is that simply because it is not being reported and there are still many, many ships being attacked and hijacked?

BOB TARRANT: Well the European naval force off Somalia for which I am the operational commander, our partners and indeed a lot of independent deployers from India, China, Russia, the Republic of Korea and Japan, are very much in the area and with good connections with the maritime industry, it is almost a unique connection, we have been effective at deterring and disrupting the pirates and the maritime industry has been very effective at reducing their vulnerabilities, not least with the use of private …

DM: They are patrolling a huge area, what is it, something like one and a half times the size of mainland Europe so the pirates must still be having their successes?

BOB TARRANT: The pirates haven’t had a success since mid-last year but there were two attacks last week, one against a very large crude tanker and the other against a Spanish fishing vessel. Now they were disrupted, in fact by an Australian ship and all their equipment broken up and they were returned unceremoniously to Somalia. Normally we like to have a legal closure on these things but sometimes in the distances at sea, difficult to get.

DM: Some people just say, based on films like Captain Phillips, why not just arm certain members of the crew and just don’t let them on board in the first place? These are sometimes huge ships but the crews seem to be completely defenceless.

BOB TARRANT: Well the crews have been, we work together very closely with maritime industry and the ones that follow best management practice, and that’s about 70%, are the ones that don’t get attacked. If you don’t take the right precautions, if you go too close to Somalia, you don’t go fast enough, you don’t use the barbed wire or you don’t have private armed security, you’re making yourself vulnerable and this is really important. I’d say to your viewers, just at this moment from East Asia and of course the liquid natural gas, there are 5000 ships a month coming through the Gulf of Aden, virtually all of them come to Europe and if we look at our trade, 90% of it comes by sea, so if you take a look just at the moment at what’s coming through the Suez Canal, it’s Christmas presents, so when you look under the tree just think for every ten Christmas presents you have under your tree, nine of them have come through that area.

DM: That’s well put. You mentioned earlier, dealing with the roots of it course is important as well, you mentioned the criminality, is there a crossover – I mean it has been much discussed over the last few weeks – into terrorism because there is some of that coming from Somalia where the monies go?

BOB TARRANT: Somalia is an interesting issue and I think I’d start off by telling you that our tactical success has dealt with the symptoms at sea. The causes of piracy lie ashore, I think that’s a well-known fact and there is a confusion. There hasn’t been a government in Somalia since 1992. Things have improved a lot in the last year with Hassan Sheikh Mohammed’s Somali Federal government and clearly they are having a big fight with the Al Shabbab. Piracy tends to be a criminal activity run as a business so what we’re doing is making it very difficult for the investors to get a return on their money and so far we’ve been pretty effective in the last year.

DM: More power to you. Rear Admiral, thank you very much indeed for coming in to talk to us here on Sky News, that’s Rear Admiral Bob Tarrant there.