The stark warning delivered at an international piracy conference adds urgency to the fight against the pirates who have emerged as the biggest threat to global merchant shipping.

This year alone bandits operating in and around the Gulf of Aden have attacked 81 ships, hijacking 29 of them.

With most attacks ending with million-dollar ransom payouts, piracy is considered the biggest moneymaker in Somalia, which has had no stable government since warlords overthrew the country's longtime dictator in 1991. Maritime experts have said pirates raked in up to $30 million in ransoms last year alone.

Abdul Wahid Mohamad, director of Puntland's fisheries ministry, told the conference that more than 1,000 Somalis, mostly former fishermen, are believed to be involved in sea piracy, and the number is growing.

He called for international efforts to help stamp out the threat, including by setting up a Somali coast guard.

Senior U.S. and European officials echoed the call for efforts to move beyond naval action.

An international naval force is currently patrolling the Gulf of Aden, used by some 20,000 cargo ships a year, and parts of Indian Ocean near Somalia. It has prevented a few attacks, but experts agree that it is impossible to police the vast sea.

Many Somali pirates began their careers guarding their shores against foreign trawlers taking advantage of the civil war to illegally fish its waters, devastating the livelihoods of its fishermen.

When the international community did nothing, the fishermen became pirates after discovering that taking hostages was so fruitful.