Of those 132 incidents, 108 took place in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore (SOMS), two of the busiest stretches of the water on the planet.

That’s an increase of 74% from the 62% that took place in SOMS in 2024. More than half of those incidents took place on board bulk carriers, often targeted thanks to their lower freeboard and slower speeds, 23% took place on tankers and 10% on containerships.

Despite the huge increase in incidents, ReCAAP executive director Vijay Chafekar said the threat level to maritime traffic hadn’t necessarily increased with it.

“The higher number of incidents largely corresponds to minor petty theft cases. In fact, there were no severe CAT 1 incidents in the SOMS in 2025,” he said, with CAT 1 incidents involving harm to the vessel’s crew.

Approximately 87% of those incidents in SOMS took place in the first seven months of 2025. There was a significant decline in incidents in the region after August 2025 following arrests of perpetrators by Indonesia authorities, which Chafekar said illustrated “the deterrent effect of effective enforcement”.

“To help reduce the number of incidents, the ReCAAP ISC would like to urge shipping companies to report all incidents of theft and unauthorised boarding to the nearest coastal state authority.

“Where possible, shipping industry should provide CCTV footage of perpetrators as evidence when making incident reports, so as to assist law enforcement agencies to swiftly arrest and prosecute the suspects,” he added.