Maritime piracy is a widespread international concern. Over the years, it has been on the rise, with the number of attacks increasing substantially. Vessels are extremely susceptible to hostile boarding. This is favoured by inherent vulnerability due to slowness (tonnage, deep sea vessels, massive size and weight), as well as lack of reporting and law enforcement: ship owners are reluctant to directly address the issue of maritime piracy for commercial reasons. Furthermore, technological improvements have resulted in smaller crews on (larger) vessels. The main objective of this paper is to set the scene for discussions on prediction, recognition and deterrence of maritime piracy through the use of collaborative human-centric information support systems. Collaborative human-centric information support systems can significantly improve the ability of every nation to predict and prevent an incident or to rapidly recognize its nature and extent for an effective collective response. Inherent to the concept of collaborative information support systems are: human system integration concepts, cognitive systems engineering methodologies, collaborative environment technologies, knowledge exploitation and data/information mining technologies instantiated into human-centred (where the human is an integrated part of the system) decision support (collaborative information systems) concepts/approaches. Operating in the crisis management and anti-piracy program environment, decision makers at all levels (e.g., incident commanders) and their staff can use collaborative humancentric information support capabilities.