Daily Independent (Lagos)
Andrew Airahuobhor
8 July 2009
A new focus on health and safety of seafarers has been raised by the launch of a new study into the dangers of fatigue of seafarers. Fatigue was identified as one of the major risks facing seafarers.
The E3.8 million (US$5.3 million), new research project is funded by the European Commission.
The 30-month Project Horizon will look at how fatigue affects watch keepers and impacts on decision-making and performance.
The project aims to lead to effective measures to improve seafarers' health and safety, including a fatigue management toolkit, as well as recommendations for improving work patterns at sea.
It involves academics in the UK and Sweden, as well as the European Community Shipowners' Associations, the European Transport Workers' Federation, the European Harbour Masters Committee, the International Association of Independent Tanker Owners, the Standard P&I Club, and the UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch and Maritime and Coastguard Agency.
Secretary-general of the International Maritime Organisation(IMO), Efthimios Mitropoulos, highlighted the continuing risks to seafarers at a recent meeting of IMO's technical co-operation committee.
He reported that 1,930 seafarers had lost their lives at sea in 2008, and that more than 800 seafarers had already died in 2009.
According to him, several casualties resulted from "failure to implement basic safety standards."
For the secretary general of Indigenous Shipowners Association of Nigeria (ISAN), Olaniyi Labinjo, IMO has recognised the dangers of fatigue to seafarers' long time ago, saying that fatigue is tiredness.
"If you have a seafarer who is fatigued, they will lose concentration and be sleeping. For somebody operating a machine, because the ship is a machine, what will happen?" he queried.
He pointed out that basic safety standards are contained in the Safety of Life At Sea (SOLAS 76) convention, saying that importance of safety at sea cannot be overemphasised, pointing out that lots of accidents that have occurred at sea in the past are traceable to human errors.
Any accidents at sea, Labinjo noted, results in loss of life, property and damage to the environment.
On compliance with SOLAS by Nigeria ship owners, Labinjo said, "We do comply. It is not by choice, you must do it."
A master mariner and former president of Nigerian Association of Master Mariners (NAMM), Adewole Ishola, noted that because of the nature of the seafarer's job, there is hardly a time for rest.
There is a standard in the shipping industry. The ship has a watch system whereby seafarers must rest a minimum of 10 hours per day; according to the International transport Workers Federation (ITF).
In order to make sure they rest more, the crew is divided into three-watch system, they are allowed to do four hours watch and four hours rest. This means they work for eight hours in all.
In doing this, there is also the need to do maintenance of equipment in the ship and other sundry duties, all of which deprive the seafarer of adequate rest. This brings fatigue to the seafarers, said Ishola, who is also the chairman/chief executive officer of Walsen Limited, a marine consultancy service company.
It was because of the issue of fatigue that the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in collaboration with the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) came to an agreement on working hours and work hours for the seafarer.
The organisation agreed that the seafarers must have time for work and time for rest, which, if people follow strictly, issue of fatigue will be greatly minimised or removed.
But Ishola notes that even when all these basic precautions are observed, the seafarer's rest is disrupted when the ship is arriving the port because all hands must be on deck to ensure that the ship berths successfully.
Also, in emergency situations, when there is a fault in the working of the ship, everybody in the ship will be awake to ensure that it is rectified.
The Anglo-Dutch union Nautilus International also raised concerns about risks to seafarers' lives, which pointed to the dangers of confined spaces on ships.
According to data from marine accident investigators in 18 flag states, there had been 120 deaths and 123 injuries in confined spaces since 1991.
Speaking at the annual assembly of the International Federation of Shipmasters' Associations in Rio de Janeiro, assistant general secretary of the Anglo-Dutch union Nautilus International, Marcel van den Broek, noted that enclosed spaces were still one of the most common causes of work-related seafarer death.
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