21 crew members on board, it s the fourth attack in less than a week, the pirates hold 16 ships and 343 hostages all together. joining us on the phone, commander john harbor, spokesman for the e.u. naval force that s working off the coast of somalia. there is good news and some bad news to report in this story, commander. it s my understanding, though, that there isn t a lot you feel you can do when these pirates are operating outside the boundaries that your war ships patrol. that is correct. good afternoon to you. the pirates have been pushed out of the area of operation effectively because of how successful e.u. has been with the guards to pirates generally and they re operating much further off the somali coast. in fact yesterday there was a hijacking of a vessel with 77 people involved and that was 1000 miles off the coast, so yes, we ve pushed the barriers out of the gulf of aden, away from the main