Does commercial shipping have to be a matter of life or death? Pirates continue to plague the international shipping lanes, and while vessel seizures off the coast of Somalia are down, they're multiplying in other parts of the world. Martin Murphy, senior research fellow at the Center for Foreign Policy Studies at Dalhousie University, is one of the world's leading experts on maritime piracy. In this episode, he discusses where the most serious threats are today, and critiques the various strategies that are being deployed to protect ships against hijacking. He also addresses the controversy over whether ships should carry armed guards to stop pirates from boarding, and whether shipowners should pay huge ransoms to free their crews from captivity.