No, I am not talking about Halloween. I have seen quite a few people dressed as pirates already, though. I am referring to news on the International Chamber of Commerce Commercial Crime Services (ICCCCS) site:

Piracy and armed robbery attacks against ships rose 14% in the first nine months of the year compared to the same period in 2006, the second consecutive quarterly increase in attacks, as the coastal waters off Nigeria and Somalia became ever more dangerous, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) reported [16 October 2007].

In the first nine months of the year, 198 attacks were reported versus 174 attacks reported in 2006 during the same time frame. A total of 15 vessels were hijacked, 172 crewmembers were taken hostage, 63 were kidnapped, and 21 were assaulted. If this trend continues, the decline in piracy attacks begun in 2004 will have bottomed out. Crew assaults, kidnapping and ransom rose dramatically from 2006.

The IMB Piracy Reporting Centre (PRC) apparently keeps track of trend data and incidents, but I have yet to find any analysis or root-cause discussion.