JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The British government is demanding the release of a retired couple being held hostage by Somali pirates.

The couple was sailing from the Seychelles to Tanzania across the Indian Ocean last week when pirates boarded their yacht and hijacked them at gunpoint.

Capt. Richard Phillips was a hostage for five days after pirates attacked his ship, the Maersk Alabama, in February.

He said no one is safe from the pirates.

"They are going after anybody they see out there," Phillips said. "Ships, Naval ships, yachts, boats, fishermen, tugs, there's no one who's outside their target area. It's a crime of opportunity and they're taking the opportunity."

The British couple has been moved to a hijacked Spanish ship that pirates have stocked with more supplies and armed men.

New technology was unveiled last week that could prevent pirate takeovers in the future.

Members of the International Maritime Security Network said high seas pirates are dangerous, well-armed and getting bolder in their attacks.

The issue of piracy took center stage when the Maersk Alabama was attacked. Last Monday, a Chinese ship was attacked.

"These people are starting to get good at what they're doing," an IMSN official said. "It's becoming a sort of business. With success breeds more."

Last week, the group suggested one way to confront them.

Some of the members of IMSN gathered in Jacksonville Tuesday to highlight a new defense system that they tested last week on a trip from Jacksonville to San Juan, Puerto Rico.

"It's a difficult problem, and it's going to have to be resolved on a local level," the IMSN official said. "And the local level will still end up being the ships."

The three-phase system is focused on detecting, deterring and defending a ship.

One of the detecting features is a set of motion-detecting cameras connected to an iPhone where you can actually adjust where the camera goes on the phone itself.

"The red box surrounding the image gets bigger," the official said.

As far as deterring, the group has created a seawater-fed system that shoots a high-pressure 30-foot wall of water off the sides of the ship. They said that makes it near impossible for someone to scale the walls.

The IMSN official said there is only one more phase of testing where they're going to take a ship into an area known for piracy before the system is released.