The collaborative initiative sees data sharing as key to developing a better understanding of maritime safety challenges and how to overcome them. One inspiration has been Inmarsat Maritime’s annual The Future of Maritime Safety report, which analyses Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) call records, and is now in its sixth year of accumulating data. SEA-CARE stakeholders see this vital record of real incidents involving perceived danger as a powerful example of a dataset which, combined with other relevant data, could contribute to significant new insights into best safety practice.

“While distress call data provides valuable information, the reasons the calls are made are not always clear from the data,” said Peter Broadhurst. “The volume of calls year on year is persistently high, and a high proportion also turn out to have been unnecessary. If we enriched GMDSS data with this information, for example, our industry could implement preventive measures to reduce the call volume.”

A first meeting of the group brought together experts representing the London & International Insurance Brokers’ Association, the International Maritime Rescue Federation, the International Maritime Organization (IMO), and the International Transport Workers’ Federation. Together, the attendees evaluated how other datasets could be integrated to provide a more holistic view of maritime safety, including information from flag states, the IMO, insurance brokers, and shipping companies.

In acknowledging that organisations may have concerns over sharing sensitive data, the group agreed that anonymised information could be used retrospectively to achieve the goals of the SEA-CARE initiative. According to the attendees, anonymised historical data would lose its potential for reputational damage while retaining its value as a source for analysis.

Jos Standerwick commented: “This conversation has been important because it has shown the scale of the challenge when it comes to sharing the appropriate data to create a better and more objective overview of maritime safety. However, importantly, we have also established that stakeholders are willing to engage fully with that challenge.”