Somalia, the land of virtually no law, has found a form of structure in a pirate economy. More so than gangs, the robbing is run by mafia-like operations. More so than nests, there pirates have entire cities to their cause. And Puntland, the Somali region with the highest concentration of pirates and their cities, is partially self-controlled. In keeping an economy afloat in areas without central government, societies has grown from piracy.

The Somali pirates are children of the state collapse in Somalia in the early nineties, researcher Morten Bøås writes in the journal Internasjonal Politikk; in the absence of a working state they took root in Somali coastal villages, building their own economy. Many pirates are former fishermen whose waters have been fished dry and treated to poisonous waste by European ships. The waters off the coast of Somalia were found by companies to be a less expensive alternative when disposing of waste. This started in the early nineties, and the tendency did not waver through civil war, which meanwhile ravaged the land.

The pollution of the coast provoked the locals, who in turn formed their own coast guard. This post had not been of huge priority for the country, which has not seen a functional government for the better part of two decades. Calling themselves the Somali coast guard, they demanded a toll from passing ships - an exploit which would escalate into the hijacking and practice of ransom we witness today. They have introduced a sophistication in method to manage this, mostly funded by what was earned charging their tolls. It seems summing up the general consensus what one pirate told the BBC, that when the fish is gone, they take what else the sea offers.