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Maritime accidents frequently occur in the Philippine archipelagic waters, often resulting in significant loss of life. These incidents highlight the urgent need for improvements in the country's maritime safety systems. By utilising accident data from the Philippine Coast Guard and the GISIS IMO databases, spatial analytical approaches were employed to determine incident distribution patterns and resulted in an overall depiction of the likelihood component of risk across the country's territorial waters. Kernel density and hotspot analysis revealed areas where incidents were concentrated and where statistically significant hotspots occurred. The Maxent tool was used to develop risk likelihood models for the incident locations using environmental rasters representing wind speed, significant wave height, depth, surface current, land distance and port distance. Model performance metrics including the AUC, TSS and Kappa were used to compare the two datasets and provide confidence on model robustness. Variable contribution figures showed that land distance is the most influential variable, with the majority of high-risk areas predominantly located near population centres. The resulting maps provide an intuitive and informative depiction of the characteristic patterns of maritime accidents in the country, identify areas of high risk requiring immediate attention and offer valuable insights to support strategies for improving and enhancing the country's maritime safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The safety of people working at sea is a subject on which many studies have been carried out. One of the current improvements that has been implemented is the possibility of assigning medical support assistance vessels during specific periods of time, whilst undergoing certain activities or peak seasons in the industry such as fishing seasons. This article proposes an aid system that will support decision making when determining the positioning of such vessels at configurable time intervals, thus shortening the emergency response time. Real data from the vessels, such as coordinates, number of crew, type of fishing gear, etc., are used to carry this out. With the scope of testing the system out, real data from the Spanish fishing fleet in the Bay of Biscay and the medical support assistance vessels available to the Spanish State have been used throughout different seasons. The results obtained convey the "standby" positions for these vessels. The following study of this comparative positioning enables us to calculate the differences between the coordinates calculated by the system and the real positions specified throughout the fishing season. The study also reviews the possibility of improving the emergency response time that would be gained, by increasing the number of medical support assistance vessels for the same area, during the same period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As in every business sector, the safety factor in fishing is very important. Although fishing boats are equipped with safety equipment, internalization of safety issues and increased awareness are crucial for the crew members as safety at sea is not a factor of on board equipment. Especially the fishermen's ignorance of the navigational restrictions and difficulties in fishing grounds may cause concerns. Since the Turkish Straits, which are two of the most dangerous and heavily trafficked straits in the world, fishermen must be aware of all meteorological, navigational and geographical restrictions. In this study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the fishermen who navigate the straits to reach the fishing grounds or use the straits as fishery grounds in order to determine the safety awareness and navigational safety at sea. A total of 23 interviews with fishermen were undertaken. The interviews were audio recorded with the permission of the participants and analyzed by content analysis method. Findings indicated that the fishermen mostly ignored the safety factors and regarded the safety equipment as an expense item that created a financial burden. It was determined that navigational safety awareness was higher than safety awareness at sea. Lack of safety equipment on board of vessels was not determined but its availability was mostly due to periodic inspections.

Most maritime accidents are caused by human error. To reduce these errors, increase safety, protect the marine environment, reduce the administrative burden, and optimize maritime trade, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) decided to implement a concept called e-Navigation. The term e-Navigation refers to the integration of the most modern information and communication systems, both on board and ashore. The research scope of this work is the safety of navigation of the ship during the port entrance. Particularly in this case, the elements that affect the safety of the ship during port entrance are analyzed in a case study of New York port. An adaptive model based on the Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) was created, which evaluates the decision-making elements and risk assessment for port entry. The model is adaptable in the context of the different port requirements. With the presented model, all entities (ships, shipping companies, and service providers) have insight into the estimated decision to enter the port based on the given elements. Further research needs to be continued on the issue of comparing the proposed model with similar models, and how much reliance on the model burdens or facilitates the Master's decision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Island governments have made decent work and social protection their highest policy priority, aiming to link them to the so-called blue economy sectors such as fisheries. The development of small-scale commercial fishing is primarily driven by transnational fisheries trade and depends on dive fisher labour force facing issues with deficits in decent work, health and safety, and safety at sea provisions. Given the macro-policy priorities for decent work in the transition of small island developing states (SIDS) to blue economy, this paper examines the development interventions in small-scale commercial fisheries trade that have exacerbated unsafe marine working conditions of dive fishers. Despite significant investments in developing commercial fisheries trade, the mismatch between macro-level decisions and micro-level labour needs has hardly been explored via the blue economy and sustainable development goal interlinkages. This study used a qualitative research approach to examine the unsafe working conditions of dive fishers and examined why dive-related accidents and fatalities occur in commercial fisheries in the first place. A systematic approach in the analysis of diving accidents helps the study to, firstly, highlight the gaps between macro policy and practice at the national and global levels. Secondly, the approach helps explore the need for a coherent approach to policy integration that bridges the gap between the macro and operational levels of small-scale fisheries labour force. The study analyses the International Labour Organization’s decent work instruments with SIDS sustainable development priorities for fisheries workforce and points out that governments must be responsible at the macro level for managing accidents at sea and building a safe diving workforce through competent marine and diving authorities.

The growing demand for transportation has brought even larger quantities of traffic in spatially limited port areas. Considering a diverse traffic mix, infrastructural overcapacity and busy schedule, port communities have started to face possible degradation of safety and environmental standards. To mitigate these problems, a number of different monitoring solutions of marine environment were deployed. Since conventional environmental and traffic data gathering by physical monitoring and sampling was logistically complicated and inefficient in time and resources, different approaches had to be considered. With the rise of accessible Internet of Things (IoT) technology some ports already installed smart monitoring devices such as smart buoys. The goal of this paper is to examine the concept and benefits of an automated smart buoy as a cost effective, easy to install device capable of real-time remote information sharing. Furthermore, the design and operational processes of existing automated smart buoy will be presented, along with solutions for tackling navigational safety and environmental problems.

Over the last few decades, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has very heavily utilized the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), 1974 Convention as the main legal instrument (and implementation tool) concerning safety at sea for merchant vessels engaged in international trade. During this more than a century of existence and continuous improvement of the Convention, wide-ranging safety risks have been addressed via SOLAS and certain relevant “supporting” Codes, covering for example the issues of design, construction and equipment of ships, as well as paving the way for the introduction of a structured framework of operational procedures that ensures a high level of professional performance for the crew onboard those seagoing vessels (the International Management Code for the Safe Operation of Ships and for Pollution Prevention-ISM Code) and even including human factors topics. Until this point in time, the IMO has developed the SOLAS Convention with fourteen (14) chapters that are covering all the main risks associated with shipping operations and are working in parallel with other related Conventions and Codes to enhance the level of safety at sea, under a holistic approach that is working under the principle of interrelation. This paper aims to briefly discuss SOLAS’ history of development and highlight just a few of those important risks that this Convention is addressing, with certain emphasis on the topic of “safety of navigation”. Apart from helping to understand the way this Convention and other IMO’s legal instruments are interrelated, it will also provide a few educated guesses about the “upcoming” challenges that in the near future should also be included into the scope of the SOLAS, with the topic of Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MAAS) clearly standing out.

The Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS) became the central navigational tool on modern ships. The system comprises numerous navigational and other components, each of them with its limitations and reliability. Due to ECDIS's revolutionary features, navigators are tempted to place excessive reliance on the system. Such reliance on it as a sole navigational aid is undoubtedly a problematic issue. The proposed paper is a segment of a systematically carried out research among ECDIS stakeholders. ECDIS EHO (Experience, Handling, and Opinion) research aims through research activities based on a user-centred approach to develop and improve the educational framework. The overreliance on the ECDIS system motivated the proposed research, which focused on system users' opinions and practice regarding confirmation of the accuracy of information displayed on ECDIS, particularly concerning positional sensors. Analysis of answers collected by the ECDIS EHO questionnaire represents a backbone of the research supported by previous achievements. The answers have been categorized and discussed, revealing certain worrying aspects referring to the system's positional error experienced by users. Furthermore, preferred methods of cross-checking ECDIS information have been identified and have differed among respondents based on their rank on board. Additionally, answers indicate certain doubts between users’ interpretation of the best confirmation method and the actual selection of the used method. The importance of cross-checking navigational data in avoiding overreliance and maintaining situational awareness has been presented in the conclusion chapter and the proposal for further work.

Ship manoeuvrability is a wide term which consist of number of various parameters. Knowing the influence of these parameters on ship manoeuvrability is a first condition to ensure and maintain safe navigation. However, many of these parameters are external forces and, in some cases, cannot be calculated and prediction may be complicated. Analysing the influence of external forces can give as an insight into ship manoeuvrability when such external force occurs. The main purpose of this paper is to analyse the influence of wind on ship manoeuvrability. The best way to make such analysis is during turning circle because in this case wind acts in all 360°. Analysis is made using empirical equations and in situ with the real vessel. The results provide the better understanding of vessel trajectory and show that in some cases vessel may respond in unexpected manner.

The purpose and scope of this paper is to present the demand of Polish waters for the boat MoB MEDS the Mobile Base of the Marine Emergency Diving Service, which would enable necessary underwater works (repairs and inspections) for ships requiring immediate assistance. The MoB MEDS boat could also protect sensitive sea areas against potential oil and / or chemical spills from the ship, which could seriously threaten the safety of human life, the safety of navigation and the protection of the natural environment with its unique ecological values. Mentioned demand is supported by the analysis of selected statistical data on maritime accidents in Polish waters and planned maritime investments.

The article presents issues related to the determination of under keel clearance for LNG carrier at anchorage. The processes related to the acquisition and analysis of data affecting the safety of anchoring operations have been presented. The collected data made it possible to achieve the research goal, which was to assess the variability of under keel clearance in simulated scenarios for various hydro-meteorological conditions observed in the area of the anchorage. The result of the simulation tests is to identify the risks that may occur during anchoring of the LNG carrier and the presented issues may be helpful in safe planning of the anchorage for LNG ships.

This paper describes the new aspects of modernization Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) proposing new developments and integrations of Radio and Satellite Communication, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) and Global Ship Tracking (GST) systems in the function of enhanced Safety at Sea (SAS) and improved Search and Rescue (SAR) operations. To provide reliable tracking and detecting facilities of ships in distress have to be integrated the current Maritime Radio Communications (MRC) and Maritime Satellite Communications (MSC) systems with new Space Communication, Navigation and Surveillance Systems (CNS). The preliminary modernization aspects and plan for the GMDSS radio and satellite network are introduced in this paper. Based on the current state of the GMDSS and considerations on updating, upgrading and improving the system, some normative and technical aspects of the GMDSS modernization proposals are given. Further proposals on the GMDSS modernization plan were also considered.

The priority of the maritime transport operation is a high level of security, which must be constantly monitored by shipowners with a security management system. The origin of the International Code for the Management of Safe Ship Operations and Pollution Prevention and the revised guidelines for the administration of the ISM Code by administrations, the first formal mandatory standard for safety management and pollution prevention goes back to the early 1980s. Arrangement of safe ship management and operation and consequent minimization of errors human being by far the most common cause of marine disasters is its main. The shipowner's and ship's certification procedure for the Safety Management System (SMS) is in line with Regulation (EC) No 336/2006 [1] of the European Parliament and the Council of Europe of 15 February 2006 on the implementation of the ISM Code in the Community, together with the Commission's amendment European Union of June 16, 2008. The documentation contains a developed Safety Management System adapted to the conditions of a given shipowner. All elements of the system must be documented, and, above all, the duties must be described in the organizational structures. Documentation must indicate how management supervises activities at various levels, employee participation and individual management representatives in individual processes, and how the safety management system is constantly improved. The shipowner maintains a security management system in line with the requirements of the Code and complies with the requirements of the certification system. The amount of information and the speed of changes taking place in the environment makes it necessary to introduce a system of information management and channels of their flow not only within the organization, but also in communication with third parties. Proper management of information resources increases the efficiency and effectiveness of the system. In the publication, the possibility of a formalized description of information flow in a well-functioning shipowner's safety management system.

Nowadays the World Transporting System are closely interrelated with the use of integrated navigation model. There is an important need for development and implementation of the new e-navigation system to meet the requirements for increasing level of safety and environment protection, efficient navigation and control of ship’s track in all phases of the passage.

People responsible for crisis management, especially in coastal voivodships (Pomeranian, West Pomeranian and Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship) must be aware and prepared to take effective action in the event of emergencies in maritime waters. The geographical, hydro meteorological conditions and geographical conditions of the Baltic Sea of the Baltic Sea and the increasing intensity of Baltic shipping, and in particular the increase in oil transport, mean that the likelihood of maritime accidents that can generate crises in sea areas increases significantly. There are about 2000 ships in the Baltic marine area at any given moment and about 3500 - 5500 ships navigate through the Baltic Sea per month. Approximately 20% of the ships in the Baltic Sea are tankers. Despite different uncertainties some trends in the Baltic shipping can be expected. For example ship traffic is likely to increase yearly and it is expected that vessel size will increase because the maritime transport must be more efficient and cost-saving. Such trends create serious threats for Baltic States. The maritime administrations of the Baltic States and international maritime organizations undertake a number of actions to increase maritime safety in the Baltic Sea. The publication characterizes Baltic shipping and analyzes the scale of threats generated by maritime accidents, as well as ways of responding and minimizing the probability of emergencies in the Baltic Sea. Activities including: legislative and organizational activity were also characterized; practical use of modern technology both on vessels and in land navigation monitoring systems; marine traffic engineering and shipbuilding, which aim is to minimize the likelihood of maritime accidents in the Baltic Sea and analyses of Baltic states capacity to oil spill response. In addition, the publication proposes a definition of a crisis situation in relation to sea areas and presents when a maritime accident or incident can generate a crisis situation in sea areas. The result of the research process is proposals for actions that, in the author's opinion, should be taken to reduce the number of maritime accidents in the Baltic Sea.

Low maneuverability of ships together with growing intensity of marine traffic result in new challenges related to navigation safety. This paper reports a research aimed at design of methodology of operation of recommender systems for navigation safety. First, a specification of requirements to systems of the considered class has been carried out. Based on these, the major principles of functioning of such systems have been defined. The principles were a basis for development of the mentioned above methodology, which is based on the usage of context patterns and characterized by the presence of feedback to update the system’s knowledge base.

Climate change provides for improved conditions for maritime navigation and results in increased activity in the Arctic. Those increased activities influence the safety at sea and risk of accidents. A disaster as the Costa Concordia incident would have far more serious consequences in Greenlandic waters than it had in Italy, therefore the question of prevention and disaster-preparedness is crucial. One approach to avoid risks is to create specific legislation. The legal system guiding safe navigation of cruise ships in/around Greenlandic waters is complex: the legal regime for navigation is set in different general and specific international, regional and national legal acts, partly non-binding, therefore issues of effectiveness arise. Safety is also influenced by practical issues, e.g. the lack of sufficient nautical charts for Greenlandic waters and “preparedness” at land to handle potential disasters, such as the SAR-system and preparedness of different actors, for example hospitals.

While a system-theoretic approach to the safety analysis of innovative socio-technical systems gains a growing acceptance among academia, safety issues of Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS) remain largely unexplored. Therefore, we applied a System-Theoretic Process Analysis to develop and analyze a preliminary model of the unmanned shipping system in order to elaborate safety recommendations for future developers of the actual system. Results indicate that certain advancements shall be undertaken in relation to MASS’ software solutions in particular.

Reviving is noticeable in the field of oil and gas production located under the seabed. The off-shore projects are being implemented. Due to this, the risk of accidents at each stage of production should be considered continually. The offshore market, both oil and gas as well as renewable energy, is estimated to increase steadily in the coming years. Therefore, the operations on the production oil field must be suitably protected at every stage of performing work. The paper describes how important Job Safety Analyses are for proper operations. The main aim of the article is to indicate steps and the best way of performing JSA on board of the offshore installation to reduce the risk of emergency. The selected disasters and major accidents indicate that the conducted activity is exposed to the risk of hazards to the natural environment and to people at every stage of the reservoir exploitation. The authors use the analysis of available international reports, the experience gained while working on different types of the offshore vessels and installations as well as in the Polish offshore company.

One of the primary factors that affect the safe maritime navigation is the insufficient experience and skill of an apprentice officer, which may be improved using simulation-based training by ensuring operational efficiency. This study aims to determine appropriate factors for achieving effective and intensive simulation-based training of apprentice officers and present the guidelines for such a training scheme. Initially, a marine traffic risk model, which interprets and accurately measures the risk of collision with other vessels, is analyzed to derive the most influential factors in safe navigation. Subsequently, simulation experiments are conducted by applying machine learning to verify the required safe navigation factors for effectively training the apprentice officers. As a result of the above analysis, it was confirmed that the factor affecting safe maritime navigation was the distance from other vessels. Finally, the differences between these distances in the simulations are analyzed for both the apprentice officers and the experienced officers, and the guidelines corresponding to both these cases are presented. This study has the limitation because of the difference between the ship maneuver simulation and the actual ship navigation. This can be resolved based on the results of this study, in combination with the actual navigation data.

Safety, along with the issue of security, is the most substantial and critical issue to any society and nation of the mankind. The fact that human elements contribute dominantly, in particular, to the transportation – marine, air and road traffic – accidents requires not only the technical approaches, but also cultural configuration inherent to the accidents. This paper tries to incorporate Hofstede’s dimensions of national culture to identify possible interaction with accidents. It will be of help to figure out the need to consider the aspect of national culture to be efficient in dealing with policies for safer communities and nations.

Since ship-bank interaction affects the manoeuvrability of a ship navigating close to a bank, the determination of hydrodynamic derivatives is of great importance to assess the ship manoeuvrability. To obtain the hydrodynamic derivatives of the KVLCC2 model ship with different water depths and ship-bank distances, the simulation of PMM tests are carried out using an unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) based solver. Hybrid dynamic mesh technique is proposed to realize the simulation of pure yaw tests in confined water. Studies on the grid convergence and time-step-size convergence are firstly performed. Hydrodynamic derivatives for the ship in different water depths and ship-bank distances are compared. The course stability is investigated based on time-domain simulations and eigenvalue analysis, and the results show that the ship-bank interaction and shallow water effect have a remarkable influence on the course stability.

The importance of safety on ships is beyond dispute, however, there are some types of ship for which this matter deserves special consideration. One of these types of ships are passenger cruises, due to the high number of human lives that travel on board. For this reason, we believe that a particular study of safety in cruise ships is needed. The Port State Control (PSC) mechanism of coastal States to try to ensure security in their territorial waters in respect of the traffic of foreign ships may, a priori, be an impartial and reliable indicator of security, according to the deficiencies it detect in ships and the detentions that carried out. Thus, we will use the PSC inspections in this paper. The source of information about PSC inspections is EQUASIS, which is the information system of the majority of regional agreements PSC and US Coast Guard. The study period is 5 years (2012-2016) and the cruise ships analysed are belonging to the International Association of Cruise Lines (CLIA). The objective of this work is an initial approach to safety on cruise ships and the structure of the sector according several factors (company, cruise type, age and pavilion).

The paper describes the use of matrix game theory for the synthesis of safe control of a ship in collision situations. An analysis of the sensitivity of the ship control algorithm to the inaccuracy of process state information and changes in its parameters was presented. Sensitivity characteristics were compared on the example of the navigational situation in the Kattegat Strait for good and restricted visibility at sea.

This study was determined the evaluation of the safety, security, and protection of the navigational trip in terms of safety among marine engineering students as an entire group and when they were classified according to section such as Polaris 3-A, Polaris 3-B, and Polaris 3-C. Respondents of the study were the one hundred twenty (120) Polaris marine engineering students who are currently enrolled in the College of Maritime Education of JBLFMU-Molo for School Year 2017-2018 who were on board or have undertaken the navigational trip and have observed some of the safety and security services on board. The researchers employed quantitative-qualitative research design by Creswell (2013) to determine the navigational trip and observations of the safety and security services on board. Results revealed that the respondents had “excellent evaluation” about the safety, protection, and security of the navigational trip vessel. There were no significant differences in the evaluation of the respondents as to the different sections; no relationships were observed when the respondents’ evaluation results were compared according to sections. The observations and comments cited in this study signify that the navigational trip vessel exhibited safety and security, maintain clean and safe environment, and followed the strict implementation of safety as prescribed by the international standards. The respondents’ comments attested that the navigational ship has implemented the international standard of safety and procedure on board.

Security mechanisms of a telematics system are exceedingly intersecting as they could pretend the ordinary influence of the vehicle and perhaps terminate in accidents. This paper includes a new look at automotive and telematics transportation systems, also refers to methods in modelling, facility location, data processing and assessment of risk in telematics networks.

Situation awareness is the key element of the decision-making process. In navigation safety domain, monitoring, control, assessment of dangerous situations, support of operators of decision-making support system should be implemented in real time. In this paper we present the problem of situation awareness applied to navigation safety control. The paper considers existing models of situation awareness and ontology-based approach for maritime situation awareness. We introduce the situation concept using infons. Finally, we give an example how use these methods for design and creation of decision-support system for navigation safety control.

Ship navigation safety in restricted water areas is of great concern to crew members, because ships sailing in close proximity to banks are significantly affected by the so-called ship-bank interaction. The purpose of this paper is to apply the optimal control theory to help helmsmen adjust ships’ course and maintain the target course in restricted waters. To achieve this objective, the motion of a very large crude carrier (VLCC) close to a bank is modeled with the linear equations of manoeuvring and the influence of bank effect on the ship hydrodynamic force is considered in the model. State-space framework is cast in a Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) system, where the offset-free model predictive control (MPC) is designed for course following and the linear quadratic regulator (LQR) is used for course keeping. Simulation results show that the control methods effectively work in ship course following and course keeping with varying ship-bank distances and water depths. The advantage of adopting speed variation as the second control input is obvious.

Based upon the true voyages various methods of avoidance maneuver determination in ship ? cyclone encounter situations were presented. The goal was to find the economically optimal solution (minimum fuel consumption, maintaining the voyage schedule) while at the same time not to exceed an acceptable weather risk level.

The paper describes new directions in which the safety of navigation in Pomeranian Bay (Poland) became into a new era since the LNG Terminal in port of Świnoujście begun to attend to a large gas tankers at around 320 meters length, 50 meters breadth, and draught of 12.5 meters. For the safety of naviga-tion in Pomeranian Bay, the Maritime Administration has modified the traffic regulations, directing the ship's traffic to the zones outside the main approaching channel. For some of the ships navigating in to Świnoujście the new regulations mean the necessity of passing the shallow waters, with all consequences of that. The most important effect, being predominating in shallow waters, it is the squat effect. This effect is causing the ship's speed reduction and the increase of fuel consumption. It is very difficult to select the influence of the squat effect from others, like weather conditions, waves high and direction, and sea keeping qualities for ships of different type. This paper is giving the contribution to deep analysis of the above, and is presenting the test results done for passenger/cargo Ferries, travelling as per regular service to the port of Świnoujście: M/F "Gryf" and M/F "Wolin".

The paper describes a short history related to the development of maritime transport at the turn of the 20th century. A classic navigation model used since the mid-twentieth century as well as the development directions of current integrated navigation model have been described here.

This study presents the results of the content analysis of articles related to "Ship Safety Do-main". The content and statistical analysis of 44 articles that published in 21 different journals between 1970 and 2016 were conducted. This study includes various data types such as publishing years of articles, obtaining the type of data, the contribution of authors, the contribution of countries, the contribution of the institution, the rank of the journal, keywords of articles and etc. The content analysis aims to provide necessary indicators for readers, followers, and contributors of relevant discipline and a glimpse of lots of articles. The published articles about ship safety domain are discovered by this study so as to contribute lecturers and researchers interested in navigation especially ship domain concept. The results of the research were revealed that Poland and China are the most contributing countries, Dalian Maritime University and The Maritime University of Szczecin are the most contributing institutions and Ning Wang and Rafal Szlapczynski are the most contributing researchers.

Pilotage operations require close interaction between human and machines. This complex sociotechnical system is necessary to safely and efficiently maneuver a vessel in constrained waters. A sociotechnical system consists of interdependent human- and technical variables that continuously must work together to be successful. This complexity is prone to errors, and statistics show that most these errors in the maritime domain are due to human components in the system (80 ? 85%). This explains the attention on research to reduce human errors. The current study deployed a systematic human error reduction and prediction approach (SHERPA) to shed light on error types and error remedies apparent in pilotage operations. Data was collected using interviews and observation. Hierarchical task analysis was performed and 55 tasks were analyzed using SHERPA. Findings suggests that communication and action omission errors are most prone to human errors in pilotage operations. Practical and theoretical implications of the results are discussed.

Occupational accidents on board criteria determining is a challenging procedure in shipping industry as the ideal safety ship management strategy depends on many factors involving in shipping transportation There are many legislations, agreements and practices to obtain series of security measures in order to ensure safety and security of seafarers. Causes of on-board occupational accidents need to be evaluated in a correct manner to regulate more functional practices and also to lower the on-board accident rates. However, causes of on-board accidents can be extremely complex. Therefore, scientific methods should be used to evaluate the causes and to determine the measures to be taken. The evaluation of the parameters is of great importance for the future of the maritime sector and in terms of development. In this study, factors have been identified that lead to seafarers? occupational accidents on board and we tried to present alternative solutions which can be applied on this issue. Severity of the reasons that led to the accidents and their relationships with each other are identified to be able to sort through the alternative solutions with a model using the fuzzy AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) method approach. Results of the study revealed that the most important criteria for the occupational accidents on board criteria selection are respectively; human factors, lack of management, ship-borne troubles, cargo troubles and environmental factors.

Seafaring has long been recognised as a hazardous occupation, with the ever-present risk of disease, drowning or serious, often fatal, injuries from fires, accidents, shipwrecks or simply falling overboard. Health and safety concerns about physical dangers came to include illness from toxic substances but only recently has attention turned to the psychological hazards of shipboard living and working under conditions of isolation. A recent survey of seafarers working in the cargo shipping industry is the first sustained, methodical study to investigate the mental wellbeing of ships crews. It provides a wealth of statistical and other information from both crews and the companies employing them that, it is suggested here, is of value for further research, and an opportunity for labour historians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An occupational health and safety management system (OHSMS) is a set of people, resources, and policies interacting in an organized way to reduce damage and losses generated in the workplace. Although there are various OHSMSs in the shipping industry, the International Safety Management (ISM) Code which is managed by the International Maritime Organization is mandatory for all shipping companies. Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series (OHSAS) 18,001:2007 is a good alternative to strengthen the implementation performance of the ISM Code. An integrated ISM‐OHSAS safety system can potentially construct a more powerful and practical OHSMS by redesigning safety procedures in ships as a workplace. This study aims to build a more comprehensive OHSMS for assessing and improving the safety at sea by coordinating the constituents of the ISM Code and OHSAS. The criteria sets of both systems are analysed using a Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory approach to reveal the relations between each other. The result of the proposed approach that represents the connections among important safety constituents may be very useful especially for shipping companies for designing their safety management processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

EDA is a tool for auditing vessel’s performance that helps installing strict safety navigation standards on ships. The practice of investigating every near-miss event is common in aviation, but unheard of in the maritime industry. At the same time, major accidents attributed to human errors are increasing, including collisions and groundings that cost lives, pollute the seas and lose property. The idea of EDA, short for E-navigation Data Audit, is simple: analyze the navigational data from VDR and/or ECDIS, find the events that should not have happened (“near misses”), and instruct your ships that it is not the standard you want on your vessels. EDA allows remote auditing on how the bridge team is performing and how the ship is handled, as required by ISM but seldom done. A pilot project for the EDA was carried out during 6 months. The first data showed 18 events of close proximity (“Near-collision”); 4 of them showed severe violation of the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREG, 1972). As expected, after sending the EDA first report to the ship, NO such events were found in the next 5 months of the pilot project.

One of the major activities during Ship to Ship (STS) transfer operation at sea is to safe approach the Ship to be Lightered (SBL) which moves on a constant heading with slow speed or drifting. In the paper described the manoeuvring problem for approaching during emergency STS transfer operation with oil spill. The approach manoeuvre is considered as a sequence of navigation manoeuvres in specific navigational environment with environmental and operational constraints as well as ship dynamic performance. Additional constraints results from STS transfer operation guide and navigation practise.

Pilotage is considered as the most critical leg of navigation and a complex operation in maritime domain. In this paper, we argue that Distributed Situation Awareness (DSA) is an important construct in pilotage as the information required to carry out operations is distributed between agents and artefacts. We identify the central themes from the theory of DSA which are useful in describing modern day complex socio-technical systems. Further, based on the central themes, we propose guidelines for evaluating bridge teams involved in pilotage operations.

As a complex socio-technical system marine transportation is open to risks. Due to the efforts of international organisations, flag and port administrations, classification societies and ship-owners the safety record has steadily improved. However, marine accidents resulting from inadequate safety culture still occur. In this paper examples of recent accidents related to different dimensions of safety culture are provided. The role of the master in achieving an enhanced safety is emphasised.

Author of the paper analyzes problems related to the safety of the oversize cargo in ports and in the sea transport. Various modes of transport are used to carry oversized units that often include maritime transport. Transport of oversized cargo includes non-standard large and heavy pieces of cargo, such as electric transformers, reactor vessels, wind turbines, airplane fuselage or nuclear power plant components. The above paper is based on results of research oversized cargo in the Elpo Service Company and Pol-Mare Ltd. forwarding consulting agency.

The ship domain is one of the criteria for navigational safety assessment. It is particularly important in restricted areas with high intensity traffic, where the criteria of closest point of approach (CPA) and time to CPA are difficult to apply. This research continues to examine ship domains in Traffic Separation Schemes (TSS). We have analyzed precautionary areas established within TSSs in connection with changed arrangements of vessel traffic. Besides, we have defined ship domains in a precautionary area of a specific TSS, and compared them to domains of vessels proceeding along traffic lanes.

Over the past generation, the ISM code has brought forth tremendous opportunities to investigate and enhance the human factor in shipping through the implementation of Safety Management Systems. One of the critical factors to this implementation has been mandatory compliance and a requirement for obtaining a Document of Compliance (DOC) for vessels operating globally or at least internationally. A primary objective of these systems is to maintain them as “living” or “dynamic” systems that are always evolving. As the ISM code has evolved, there have been instances where large organizations have opted to maintain a voluntary DOC from their respective class society. This has been accomplished with a large human factor element as typically an organizational culture does not always accept change readily especially if there is not a legal requirement to do so. In other words, when considering maritime training is it possible that organizations may represent cultural challenges? The intent of this paper will be to research large maritime operations that have opted for a document of compliance voluntarily and compare them to similar organizations that have been mandated by international law to do the same. The result should be to gain insight into the human factors that must contribute to a culture change in the organization for the purposes of a legal requirement versus the human factors that contribute to a voluntary establishment of a safety management system. This analysis will include both the executive decision making that designs a system implementation and the operational sector that must execute its implementation. All success and failures of education and training can be determined by the outcome. Did the training achieve its goal? Or has the education prepared the students to embrace a new idea in conjunction with a company goal or a new regulatory scheme? In qualifying the goal of a successful ISM integration by examining both mandatory and voluntary ISM implementation in large maritime operations, specifically ferry systems, hopefully we can learn from the various factors that have gone into each.

A ship domain is nowadays an important navigational safety assessment criterion. Its shape and size depend on many factors. The available maneuvering area seems to be one of the most important of them. This article examines the influence of the available manoeuvring area on the shape and size of ship domain in the open sea and restricted waters. The research was conducted using a simulation method. Expert navigators participated in simulations using the ECDIS system. The domains of ship passages in open sea area and restricted area have been compared.

The first priority of the IMO (International Maritime Organization) is to ensure safety at sea. The ships are the critical elements of the shipping. The ships are the largest vehicles of the world and equipped with state of art management systems which are mostly furnished with highly automated systems. Any automated system failure may cause fatal accidents which hamper the human life, ship and environment as well as ports and terminals. Automated systems facilitate management of the ships and reduce manpower requirement. Unfortunately the seafarers assume these high technology products are very reliable and mostly neglects any possible failure on these systems. If we investigate seafarer’s education and training systems, curricula do not cover sufficient knowledge on operation principles and limitations of automated systems. This insufficiency negatively affects their counter actions in case of an automation failure which endangers safety of sea. The application of automation systems on board speedily pervades following the rapid technologic developments on merchant ships as well as on naval ships. That means automation failure will become rather important in the future. This study investigates possible reasons for automation failures and proposals to prevent it and reduce the negative effects of such incidents. Finally, it is intended to define measures covering automation failure versus human element on board. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The opportunity for providing first aid in emergency cases is frequently an important part of the seafarers’ skills and everything possible must be done for encouraging the tradition of health and medical care in the sea. In order to guarantee health and medical service on-board, every sailor needs to know the techniques of first aid. It’s quite obvious that it cannot be expected by sailors to be doctors, but sometimes there are life-threatening situations, in which they should react fast and effectively. The ship captains attend a first-aid refreshing course, every five years. This period seems too long to guarantee adequate medical treatment by seafarers on-board. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A complex of ice cover characteristics and the season of the year were considered in relation to vessel route planning in ice-covered areas on the NSR. The criteria for navigation in ice - both year-round and seasonal were analyzed. The analysis of the experts knowledge, dissipated in the literature, allowed to identify some rules of route planning in ice-covered areas. The most important processes from the navigation point of view are the development and disintegration of ice, the formation and disintegration of fast ice and behavior of the ice massifs and polynyas. The optimal route is selected on basis of available analysis and forecast maps of ice conditions and ice class, draught and seaworthiness of the vessel. The boundary of the ice indicates areas accessible to vessels without ice class. Areas with a concentration of ice from 0 to 6/10 are used for navigation of vessels of different ice classes. Areas of concentration of ice from 7/10 up are eligible for navigation for icebreakers and vessels with a high ice class with the assistance of icebreakers. These rules were collected in the decision tree. Following such developed decision-making model the master of the vessel may take decision independently by accepting grading criteria of priorities resulting from his knowledge, experience and the circumstances of navigation. Formalized form of decision making model reduces risk of the "human factor" in the decision and thereby help improve the safety of maritime transport.

The safety of the tankers during the Ship-to-Ship operations carried out in shallow water close to port limit is influenced by many factors. Based on the experience of ship crew involved in STS operation it was found that area for such operation and weather analyses is the most important factors affecting the safety of the tankers. Wind speed and accompanying waves very often determine if such operation could be commenced. For the article simulations were carried out with maximum allowable wind speed and waves for such operation to obtain the drift of both tankers and capacity of area for STS operation. The results obtained from simulations allowed to assess the required space for tankers involved in STS operation.