<p>The number of attacks by pirates reported around the world has more than tripled during the past 10 years, which doesn't surprise one Massachusetts scientist who had firsthand experience with thieves of the sea.</p>
<p>Amy Bower, an oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Falmouth, was the chief scientist on the research vessel Maurice Ewing off the East Africa coast when pirates with rifles and rocket grenades fired at it last year.</p>
