The Future of Maritime Safety 2023 collaboration and data are key in tackling safety challenges

October 4, 2023

To improve standards and reduce the human, environmental and financial impact of marine casualties, the Future of Maritime 2023 report calls for cooperation and collaboration built on solid data and the collective desire to manage risk to the lowest practicable level.

This year’s report also reveals that the number of distress calls from ships at sea remains high, despite a continuing decline in vessel losses as well as The Future of Maritime Safety Report 2023 provides insights into vessel distress, derived from the Inmarsat’s Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) data gathered in 2022.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS

Analysis of aggregated data registered over Inmarsat RescueNET services received during 2022, and comparisons with statistics arising from data received in 2021 and earlier.
Distress calls analysed by vessel type, gross tonnage, year of build, seasonal weather, Flag State and more.
853 GMDSS distress calls registered on Inmarsat networks in 2022, up from 794 in 2021.
Safety should be prioritised as shipping moves towards greater digitalisation and adopts new fuel and propulsion technology for its decarbonisation journey.
Seafarer well-being remains a core component of safety and must remain high on the post-pandemic agenda.
Regulation, the human element – including human-centric design, – and technology need to be integrated to address safety challenges as shipping transitions to alternative fuels, adopts decarbonisation technologies, and continues to digitalise.

FUTURE OF MARITIME REPORT 2023 – AT A GLANCE

Is ship safety improving?

While total vessel losses continue to decrease year on year, registered GMDSS data indicates a significant increase in distress calls, up from 749 in 2021 to 853 in 2022. On top of this, the number of marine casualties and incidents reported each year, and the type of accidents and incidents, remains stubbornly consistent.

The top three vessels that made the most distress calls in 2022

Tankers, container ships and bulk carriers sent the most GMDSS distress calls in 2022 (by rate – the number of calls received / number of vessels in that vessel category), with the lowest number of calls originating from passenger ships. Twelve year-old vessels (all types) are responsible for sending the most GMDSS distress calls.

Improving maritime safety

Current levels of risk cannot be accepted. Safety data and reports can be used to proactively tackle the root causes of repeated and well-known safety issues to reduce incidence rates, rather than just monitor trends and improve incident response.

Maritime safety can be improved by more broadly adopting goal-based safety standards; formalising data collection arrangements; creating and utilising a standardised international marine casualty and incident dataset and sharing anonymised data between international and national safety bodies.

Rather than defaulting to the development of more regulations, shipping could, in the short-term, adopt an overarching and unifying safety goal and set of underlying KPIs. This will enable regulatory impact to be objectively assessed, improvement areas to be prioritised, and the impact of consequent safety initiatives to be measured over time.

I believe that shipping companies and other stakeholders want to improve the safety record. Efficient data gathering and sharing of safety-related information will propel lasting change that benefits seafarers, the environment, and the global supply chain.

Peter Broadhurst, Senior Vice President, Safety and Regulatory, Inmarsat Maritime

The report also includes:

Insights and opinions from shipping experts including:
- Heike Deggim, Director of Maritime Safety Division at the IMO
- Ksenia Zakariyya, HSEQ Manager, Yara Clean Ammonia
- Captain Jaquelyn Burton, Head of Creative Design, Kongsberg Maritime
- Nimia Willems, IMO Technical Officer, The International Association of Classification Societies
- John Strawpert, Manager (Environment and Trade), Marine Department, International Chamber of Shipping
- Joanna Sawh, Head of Commercial, Maersk Training
- Justus Heinrich, Global Product Leader Marine Hull, AGCS
- Captain Rajiv Kapoor, General Manager QHSE, Anglo-Eastern (Germany)
“The voices of the seafarers” – views on safety issues from seafarers who drive the industry forwards.

If you haven’t already done so, why not get your copy of the Future of Maritime Safety 2022 report? With an analysis of four years of maritime distress data to focus minds on true areas for concern and develop a vision for shippings future safety.