Improving injury rates are masking the continued threat of fatal accidents across the offshore marine contracting industry, according to the International Marine Contractors Association  after its latest Annual Safety Statistics Report revealed fatalities more than doubled despite overall safety performance improving.

The report, based on one of the largest safety datasets in the industry’s history, covers more than 1.02 billion working hours submitted by 167 contractor members. While traditional safety indicators continued to improve during 2025, fatalities rose from three to seven (four of them offshore) prompting IMCA to warn that injury frequency rates alone no longer provide a complete picture of risk.

Although the industry’s Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) fell from 0.30 to 0.27 and the Total Recordable Injury Rate (TRIR) reduced from 1.10 to 0.98, IMCA says those encouraging figures cannot be viewed in isolation when workers continue to lose their lives.

Mark Holmes, Safety and Security Manager at IMCA, said: “Every fatality represents a person, a family and a workforce affected by loss. While the continued improvement in injury rates is encouraging and reflects the hard work of our Members, these figures demonstrate that serious harm risks remain present despite improving injury statistics.

“Safety performance should no longer be judged primarily by injury frequency rates, but by how effectively companies identify and control the hazards most likely to result in death or life-changing injury.”

The report argues that the offshore marine contracting industry must now place greater emphasis on preventing serious injuries and fatalities by identifying high-consequence hazards before they result in tragedy, rather than relying solely on traditional performance measures.

Alongside seven fatalities, contractor members reported 268 lost-time injuries and 996 total recordable injuries during 2025. The Fatal Accident Rate (FAR) increased from 0.30 to 0.69. Reported fatal incidents included an electrocution, a fall from height and a mooring incident involving a parted rope, while details of four additional fatalities were not provided.

One of the report’s clearest messages concerns the industry’s continuing exposure to “line of fire” incidents, which remained the leading cause of lost time injuries despite reducing from approximately 52% of cases in 2024 to around 41% in 2025.

Rather than treating line of fire as a single category, IMCA is encouraging companies to focus on the specific situations where workers are exposed to harmful energy, including lifting and rigging operations, mooring activities, suspended loads, moving equipment, dropped objects, stored energy, and hand and finger exposures.

Understanding exactly where controls fail, rather than simply classifying incidents, will be key to preventing future serious injuries.

The report also highlights a significant fall in safety observation reporting. The Safety Observation Frequency Rate (SOFR) fell by around 20%, from 482.1 to 387.1 observations per 200,000 hours worked.

IMCA says the reasons remain unclear and could include changes in reporting behaviour, participating companies or reporting systems. However, the organisation believes companies should focus less on the volume of observation cards submitted and more on whether observations generate meaningful learning, practical improvements and stronger safety conversations.

Drawing on both the statistics and its Safety Flash reports, IMCA identifies several recurring areas requiring continued attention, including line-of-fire hazards, lifting and rigging operations, dropped objects, mooring and snap-back zones, working at height, electrical safety and routine day-to-day tasks.

Many of the industry’s most serious incidents continue to occur during familiar activities rather than exceptional operations, reinforcing the importance of effective planning, supervision and risk management every day.

The findings will now directly shape IMCA’s future safety programme, with priorities including strengthening serious injury and fatality prevention, improving understanding of line-of-fire risks, investigating the decline in safety observations, encouraging wider industry participation in safety reporting, and strengthening the link between Safety Flashes, guidance and practical action.

For IMCA, collecting statistics is only worthwhile if they change behaviour. The purpose of the report is not simply to record incidents, but to help companies identify serious risks earlier, strengthen critical controls and share learning across the offshore marine contracting industry.

Mark Holmes concluded: “Some of the findings are genuinely encouraging and reflect the industry’s commitment to improving everyday safety. Others are deeply concerning and remind us that serious harm prevention must remain at the centre of everything we do.

“Every contractor, supervisor and worker has a responsibility to recognise serious risks before they become tragedies. The goal remains the same: everyone working in our industry should go home safe and well.”