"Repel boarders!" Low tech warfare in a high tech age: a security primer for oceanographic research operations

Oceanographic and hydrographic research ships are ideal targets from the perspective of pirates and/or terrorists. They are generally slow, much of their work places them near a coastline, and while encumbered with research equipment (towed or over-the-side) they are frequently stationary or constrained in their ability to maneuver. Additionally, as quasi-public-vessels with considerable visibility, they may represent tempting symbolic targets to groups with a political agenda. Attacks against research vessels while infrequent are not new. Piracy, in general, has been a "growth industry" with cluster of attacks against merchant vessels occurring in a few, notable geographic regions with alarming regularity. The present state of war, existing since the September 11th attacks on the United States, along with the prior in-port attack on the USS Cole, require that we re-examine a number of operational assumptions as we dispatch research vessels on scientific, hydrographic, or resource exploration expeditions worldwide. Scientists and investigators, ship operators, funding agency program managers, and insurance underwriters must work together to maximize vessel and personnel safety while minimizing impacts on global ocean research and discovery.