BERLIN — A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for, the old maritime saying goes. A German sailing couple, seized and held for ransom eight years ago by Somali pirates, apparently lived by that rule.

A German yachting website reported Monday that the couple appeared to have been abducted again, this time while cruising a dangerous area of the Philippines, by militants of Abu Sayyaf, an insurgent group known for kidnapping and ransoming foreigners. The woman was said to have been killed.

The couple, Jürgen Kantner, 70, and his partner, Sabine Merz, have been sailing the oceans for many years aboard their 53-footer, the Rockall. They were held for 52 days in Somalia in 2008 before their captors freed them, reportedly after a six-figure ransom had been paid.

The Philippine media on Monday reported that a German couple had been attacked while sailing in an area of the southern Philippines under the control of Abu Sayyaf. The woman was shot and the man abducted, the reports said.