The world economy is taking a toll on Somali pirates as Somalia’s most successful pirate announces his retirement because it is no longer profitable for him to continue. Mohamed Abdi Hassan catapulted to fame in 2008 when he and his crew seized the Sirius Star, a Saudi Arabian tanker loaded with $100 million worth of oil and roughly equivalent in size to a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier.

Though initially his group claimed a ransom of $25 million, the tanker was eventually freed for $3 million.

While he and others like him have helped bring notoriety and world attention to the problem of piracy off of Somali coastal waters, the increased patrols and intervention by third-parties, coupled with a tough global economy, have made piracy more deadly than it already was and less-profitable as a consequence.

[Wired]