This sounds like an opportunity for some entrepreneur.
No one should be operating in these waters without an attachment of sea-going gurkhas, or some-such. Some bright guys could contract to put security teams aboard as ships enter the zone, to remain aboard until they have reached safer waters.
Or contract to escort them through in another craft.
As it is, though, until things change in the region, you’d have to be crazy to traverse these waters unarmed and unprotected.
This idea has been in practice for a long time. Just not enough resources to go around. Its a very very expensive kind of security.
This was doone very effectively in the 60’s by a company (Salvage Engineers) operating out of Singapore to provide security in the Straits of Malacca.
They had mother ships at each end of the straits and would put a heavily armed squad on board of a ship going through and pick them up at the other end and keep shuttling back & forth.
any would be pirates got a nasty reception and attacks soon petered out.
The company, of course got a tidy fee for their service and later went on to bigger things.
I encountered them in RVN where they were a dredging sub-contractor to RMK at Dong Tam (9th Inf Base) in the delta.