Kenyans are catching more fish, so they�re eating better and they�re making more money from fishing. So are some Somalis.

Some of the poorest people in Africa are benefiting from a situation which has caused much hand-wringing among the developed world - the roving Somali pirates who range freely around the coastal waters of their own nation and those of nations such as Kenya.

There have been comparisons to the Barbary pirates of North Africa more than two hundred years ago, which caused consternation among nations of the time, including the infant United States of America. George Washington turned his hand to dealing with the problem himself.

Nobody wants to contemplate falling victim to pirates. The outcomes for the kidnapped and the pirates can be lethal. Some of the most highly-trained military personnel are sent to capture or kill the pirates, and hope that they don�t harm the kidnapped in the process.

This week, however, there was an Associated Press story from Malindi, Kenya, which reported that the people of this community were thanking the Somali pirates for one thing - better fishing. Malindi is about 65 miles north of the Kenyan Indian Ocean port city of Mombasa.

For several years, Somali and Kenyan fishermen claimed that their fishing grounds off their own coasts have been almost devoid of fish and, therefore, their livelihoods were threatened. For their part, the pirates, explaining why they were seizing freighters and oil tankers and anything else of value, declared that it was, among other things, to patrol and protect their own coast.

In the absence of a civil government, Somalia has been unable to do that job, so the pirates took it on. Their protestations of legitimacy were dismissed out of hand by those who had to deal with their depredations. But they continued to make the claim.

Now that those who fish are coming back from their nightly shifts on the ocean waters with fish that they had not seen in numbers for many years, there is speculation that there is only one reason for the improvement in fish stocks - piracy.

Simply put, the danger posed by the pirates has kept the huge factory fishing ships - along with other vessels - from the waters in which the pirates hold sway.

With the respite that this has given the breeding populations of many species of fish, the stocks have made somewhat of a comeback. While it is true that this apparent cause-and-effect is not scientifically based, it makes common sense to those who depend on fishing, both to eat and to make a living.

If the proof is in the pudding, then something has made a great difference in the lives of those who fish. The only thing that is different is that pirates have kept the highly technological fishing factory ships out of their waters - and the fish have come back. That seems to be all the proof they need.

The AP quoted the owner of a sport fishing enterprise in Kenya: �There�s definitely no question about it, the lack of commercial fishing has made a difference.� Again, it�s only the experience of the people who are familiar with fishing on the sport or subsistence level, but something has happened and the fish are coming back. This has not been the result of any extensive study or experiment in introducing new fish stocks that are wired to avoid factory fishing ships. This is just that the breeding population has been given a rest.

The boats and equipment of the fishers along the coast have improved, according to the AP report. However, no amount of improvement of small equipment by local fisher folk would ever rise to the level of efficiency of the factory boats that can literally scrape the bottom of the ocean and take everything with them, so it�s unlikely that fish stocks could be depleted by small-boat fishing to the same extent of giant commercial fishing enterprises that come to African east coast waters from around the world.

If what meets the eye in the Indian Ocean waters off Somalia and Kenya is what is actually happening - a rest for the exhausted fish stocks in the world�s third-largest ocean has brought the fish back - what are we to do about the destruction of ocean waters on the rest of the globe?

The oceans have been under threat of shutting down because of over fishing and the dumping of garbage and toxins over generations. If the oceans actually do shut down, it means that the rest of life on earth is threatened, as well.

The �community of nations� has been dithering for decades about what to do to save our oceans. They know that, without healthy oceans, humans and other creatures may not survive. Rainforests are vital to the biosphere, but they are a small spot on the globe compared with the oceans, since most of the earth is covered by water. Despite their size, human activity has brought them to the brink.

It isn�t just the fish and other sea creatures that are dependent on humans doing something about our poisoning of the oceans. Rather, the fine balance in atmospheric temperatures, which govern our weather, control of excessive carbon dioxide, and the stability of the overall climate are dependent on a relatively stable ocean.

Yet, members of the United Nations and other worldwide organizations have been unable to take any concerted, sustained, and decisive action to keep from further damaging the planet. Just in the case of protecting the whales, which, as a species, are wonders of the world, nowhere near enough has been done to save them and their habitat.

For the past 40 years or more, even as it was clear that they couldn�t be hunted without threatening them with extinction, nations continued to hunt them with impunity. Japan still hunts them, as part of a so-called scientific study. When it�s all done, however, they eat the whales, just as they�ve done for centuries.

If international efforts can not give the oceans a rest, a bunch of poorly-armed pirates has shown that they can do it. They have kept at bay some of the most technologically advanced fleets of cargo ships, cruise ships (which have done more than their share of polluting oceans), and military ships. And, they have - perhaps inadvertently - protected their waters, just as they claimed they were doing a year or so ago.

Few would claim that the best solution to helping fish stocks rebound and to prevent further poisoning of the ocean is a series of acts of piracy, but it�s clear that their simple, criminal act on the high seas is more effective than all of the talk of nations about saving the earth from ourselves.

Isn�t it time for the world�s nations to devise a plan to do legally something similar to what the pirates have done off the coast of Kenya and Somalia? If lightly-armed pirates can do it, couldn�t some of the world�s best minds come up with a plan to protect oceans and their bounty from exploitation to the death? The �community of nations� simply lacks the will to do what needs to be done.

Their being outshone by pirates is an embarrassment and a tragedy.

BlackCommentator.com Columnist, John Funiciello, is a labor organizer and former union organizer. His union work started when he became a local president of The Newspaper Guild in the early 1970s. He was a reporter for 14 years for newspapers in New York State. In addition to labor work, he is organizing family farmers as they struggle to stay on the land under enormous pressure from factory food producers and land developers. Click here to contact Mr. Funiciello.