Piracy in the Gulf of Aden will get worse in the next year as Somali criminals spend recently won ransoms on new and more powerful weapons, boats and navigation equipment.
"It is a foolish view if we expect these people to give up," warned Ahmed Essa Hareb Al Falahi. "Because ransoms are being paid, I feel they are only getting stronger. We will see more pirate attacks coming from Somalia." Simple fishing skiffs, knives and Kalashnikov rifles first used by the pirates are now being replaced with faster boats with better engines, modern guns and even night-vision and radar equipment.
"I fear it is going to get worse because they are getting more sophisticated," said the chief executive of Dubai's Gulf Energy Maritime (GEM), which owns a fleet of 17 products tankers trading globally.
"The pirates started from scratch but now they are getting the money and that money is enabling them to be better equipped.
"It is dangerous and worrying for us. I hope the eyes of the international community are opened to this." Al Falahi sympathises with the plight of crews held hostage and shipping companies' efforts to release them but he has serious concerns over where the huge ransom payments are going.
And his views carry added weight with his role as a United Arab Emirates (UAE) representative to tanker owners' association Intertanko.
"If every time they hijack a vessel they get a $3m ransom, where do you imagine that $3m is going? A little might go to food and personal things but they are also buying guns and boats and faster engines, well equipped with radars and night-vision gear." Shipping is generally safe from attack during the hours of darkness at the moment, he says, but this may change.
"Right now we are more or less protected at night but I don't think that night will be a cover for much longer. I think it is a dangerous thing and it is irresponsible of the big countries and the big powers to ignore that this is a pure crime." Al Falahi urges the international community to act to help restore a functioning civil society in Somalia. Otherwise, there is little hope of quelling the piracy problem, he says. "Somalia needs its neighbours to support it and its population needs support battling famine and disease." He added: "Trade should not be held hostage and right now global trade is being taken hostage."