I watched a program that said if the ship was bearing arms they had to port and be searched etc in several ports and it held up the ship. I also heard if they captured the pirates they had to be turned over to the nearest country (govt) which is Somalia who treats these pirates like Robin Hood. I think the situation is complicated by hostages (from the Phillipines) in a close by ship. It is a situation where you wish they could just go take our guy back somehow.