Upmarket cruise line The Yachts of Seabourn has decided to quit cruising the Indian Ocean due to piracy fears.

Seabourn’s president and CEO Pamela Conover said while the move was “regrettable”, piracy had not been adequately controlled in the region.

“It makes me sad to have to cancel these cruises,” Conover said in a press statement. “I personally loved touring Kenya’s game parks, and the islands of the Seychelles, Madagascar and Zanzibar are lovely and exotic destinations where we sincerely had hoped to be able to take our guests. We look forward to a time when the sea routes are controlled enough for us to cruise there for a season.”

The Seabourn Legend was booked to sail on a five-month, 15-cruise series of voyages in the Indian Ocean in late 2010 and early 2011. The vessel will instead sail for the Americas at the end of its Mediterranean season to cruise in the Caribbean for the winter.

Somali pirates in open skiffs and armed with an assortment of automatic weapons and rocket propelled grenades, have been responsible for scores of attacks on merchant shipping in the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. Attacks have taken place as far south as the Seychelles as some pirates operate from larger mother ships.

Seabourn follows MSC Cruises and Fred Olsen Cruise Lines out of the Indian Ocean.

Yachts of Seabourn offers luxury cruises on a series of smaller ships which have more in common with superyachts than conventional cruise ships.

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