Casualties, fatigue and port state control at the IMO

29 Jul 2025 Institute News

The IMO’s sub-Committee on the Implementation of IMO Instruments met in London between 21 and 25 July 2025.

This sub-Committee brought together flag, port and coastal States to consider the effectiveness and implementation of global regulations and guidelines.

Casualty Statistics

A collection of 39 accident reports were subjected to a deep analysis by the Working Group on Lessons Learned and safety issues. The breakdown of major contributing factors showed that: 22 were management related; 19 related to (poor) risk assessment; 20 related to safety culture; and 12 were related to training.

Port State Control Reports

The sub-Committee received various reports regarding Port State Control activities in 2024.  Key statistics for 2024 include:

  • Global Inspections: 90381 (2023 = 88658)
  • Global Detentions: 2598 (2023 = 2802)
  • Average % of inspections resulting in detention: 2.87 (2023 = 3.16%)

Seafarer Hours of Work and Rest

The Nautical Institute was proud to co-sponsor a paper regarding the challenges related to implementation and enforcement of seafarers' work and rest hours regulations. A separate paper by some member states highlighted some of those challenges by describing the regulatory limitations faced by Port State Control Officers when conducting ship inspections. These include that “Historical records, while potentially indicating an ISM problem, in many cases, are insufficient grounds to detain a vessel at the time of inspection, noting that there is no ‘rectification’ as such which can be done to secure release.” In such cases, a non-detainable deficiency will be recorded.

The Nautical Institute will continue to work together with both member states and other NGOs to press for better enforcement of hours of work and rest regulations, focussed on reducing seafarer fatigue (which is a notable causal factor in many marine casualties).

The Nautical Institute was represented at the IMO by Captains Chris O’Flaherty AFNI, Moin Ahmed FNI, Sitki Ustaoglu FNI, and Professor Steven Haines FNI.

Detailed reports into container ship and passenger vessel marine casualties, along with analysis of enclosed space, survival/rescue craft, and fall incidents, will be covered in more detail in the September edition of our monthly journal, Seaways.

Return to listing