The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) has released its 5th edition of the Maritime Safety Awareness Bulletin entitled “Shaping Shipping for People”, which focuses on fatigue as a safety hazard. Insufficient sleep, night work, irregular and long working hours, monotonous tasks, and high work demands are common in seafaring jobs. In this bulletin, AMSA investigates causes and consequences of the fatigue onboard, as well as strategies to help reduce the associated risks.
In particular, a recent study by the University of Queensland, the University of Western Australia and AMSA, which included responses from 1026 seafarers working on international commercial vessels, found that:
- seafarers reported working an average of just over 61 hours per week; and
- over 35% of seafarers reported working more than 70 hours per week.
Based on fatigue risk management principles, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau have developed investigation analysis tools to examine fatigue. Investigators will firstly examine fatigue related errors. If human performance impairment is found to be consistent with fatigue, investigators will continue to examine:
- alertness while on duty;
- quantity, quality and timing of sleep obtained; and
- the sleep opportunity provided.
According to AMSA, the management of fatigue should form part of a vessel’s safety management system, to ensure that hazards and any associated risks are identified, managed and mitigated, and risk control measures are continuously monitored. In managing the risks of fatigue the following should be considered:
- ensuring adequate resources (including manning) are available to conduct all tasks safely and effectively;
- ensuring safe work scheduling which include working hours, adequate rest periods and the provision of adequate sleep opportunity. There are a number of practical tools that can be used for assessing safe work scheduling decisions with figure 6 providing some guidance;
- providing fatigue awareness and training to seafarers and other personnel whose decisions may impact the management of fatigue;
- napping strategies to use when exposed to restricted sleep (note that while naps are a powerful boost to alertness they do not eliminate the need for sleep);
- sleep disorders – fatigue may be a consequence of an underlying medical condition such as insomnia or sleep apnoea. In these situations, medical attention should be sought.
AMSA notes that measures can be adopted to identify and lessen the risks, such as:
- monitoring and assessing sleep (e.g. through subjective or objective self-assessment);
- monitoring alertness while on duty (can be done during hand-over);
- taking short breaks when possible;
- task rotation to break up job monotony;
- exercising regularly and eating regular, well – balanced meals;
- periodically re-assessing hours of work and rest;
- planning, altering and/or designing the vessel’s work and sleep areas to support alertness when working and sleep when resting;
- establishing an open communication between seafarers and management on fatigue related issues; and
- encouraging reporting of fatigue-related incidents.
Take-away message AMSA underlines a dangerous aspect, that is clearly present in many accidents: The individuals involved did not recognise that their own performance was impaired. It is a fact that fatigued individuals suffer poor judgement and make bad decisions. Further information may be found in the following report: Source & Image credit: AMSA
