The reports of boat hijacking have been distressingly increasing and according to a latest Maritime officer, the Pirates have hijacked another boat off the coast of Somalia. According to a maritime watchdog, a Thai fishing boat with 16 crew members have been hijacked by the pirates off the coast of Somalia on Tuesday (18 November). This has brought the number of pirate attacks in the troubled region to ninety five in 2008 and it was the eighth ship to be seized in the problematic area in the past two weeks.

The vessel, which was seized on Tuesday in the Gulf of Aden, had made a distress call late Monday as it was being chased by pirates in two speedboats, said Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting centre in Kuala Lumpur. The Thai boat was flying a Kiribati flag but operated out of Thailand. 

Despite increased patrols by a international naval forces, attacks have continued to rise in waters off Somalia, which has had no functioning government since 1991.