SOME 188 seafarers worldwide died on the job in 2018, according to maritime risk management and environmental assessment organisation, RightShip.
'I don't know if there's any other business in this world that accepts that [number] of fatalities and says it's business as usual,' RightShip vice president Anuj Chopra told delegates attending the Women's International Shipping & Trading Association (WISTA) International annual general meeting and conference, reported American Shipper.
Mr Chopra, a former ship captain, highlighted at the WISTA conference in the Cayman Islands that a decade ago, 55 per cent of maritime accidents took place at sea and 45 per cent happened in the last mile as ships approached port.
'Today, 70 per cent of accidents happen in the last mile,' he said, noting that RightShip believes 29 per cent of those incidents were connected to mooring issues.
'We've lost 40 seafarers in the last nine weeks,' Mr Chopra said. 'I think it's important for us to realize we need to gear up to make sure this doesn't happen. We have to get these seafarers back home.'
While Mr Chopra did not explicitly name autonomous vessels, he did advocate for decision-making to be left in the hands of humans on board.
'We have standardised the industry so much by removing the decision-making from ship to shore. Ship staff is not empowered to make decisions. We need to change that. We need to empower our seafarers to make decisions on board,' Mr Chopra said. 'We can't vicariously run the ship from shore.'
He also advocates the use of data. RightShip states on its website: 'With our predictive online ship vetting platform, RightShip Qi, coupled with the maritime expertise of our vetting team, we help our customers manage marine risk by identifying and eliminating substandard ships from their supply chain, while improving overall maritime safety standards in the industry.'
WORLD SHIPPING
'I don't know if there's any other business in this world that accepts that [number] of fatalities and says it's business as usual,' RightShip vice president Anuj Chopra told delegates attending the Women's International Shipping & Trading Association (WISTA) International annual general meeting and conference, reported American Shipper.
Mr Chopra, a former ship captain, highlighted at the WISTA conference in the Cayman Islands that a decade ago, 55 per cent of maritime accidents took place at sea and 45 per cent happened in the last mile as ships approached port.
'Today, 70 per cent of accidents happen in the last mile,' he said, noting that RightShip believes 29 per cent of those incidents were connected to mooring issues.
'We've lost 40 seafarers in the last nine weeks,' Mr Chopra said. 'I think it's important for us to realize we need to gear up to make sure this doesn't happen. We have to get these seafarers back home.'
While Mr Chopra did not explicitly name autonomous vessels, he did advocate for decision-making to be left in the hands of humans on board.
'We have standardised the industry so much by removing the decision-making from ship to shore. Ship staff is not empowered to make decisions. We need to change that. We need to empower our seafarers to make decisions on board,' Mr Chopra said. 'We can't vicariously run the ship from shore.'
He also advocates the use of data. RightShip states on its website: 'With our predictive online ship vetting platform, RightShip Qi, coupled with the maritime expertise of our vetting team, we help our customers manage marine risk by identifying and eliminating substandard ships from their supply chain, while improving overall maritime safety standards in the industry.'
WORLD SHIPPING