The Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) Maritime Administrator has issued its Annual Report on Marine Safety Investigations for the year of 2024, during which they received 954 total reports, a 13% increase compared to 2023.
According to RMI, since 2022, analysis of the data shows a steady increase in the number of reports received. The mean number of total reports received compared to the size of the fleet was 4.1% in 2024. This is an increase of 0.4% compared to 2023 and 0.9% compared to 2022.
Despite this steady increase over the preceding years, it has been recognized by the Administrator that owners and operators remain committed to safety of life and property at sea and the marine environment. This has been evidenced by an improvement in the quality of Company derived investigations and willingness to implement recommendations, observations, and lessons learned quickly across their respective vessels. The incident rate per 100 vessels is a useful metric to determine how many incidents occur as a proportion of RMI-registered vessels by incident categorization. The incident rate average per 100 vessels has steadily increased since 2022. The continued increase was primarily due to more very serious marine casualties, marine incidents, and occurrences being reported in 2024 than in 2023.
By examining the root cause of these incidents, the Administrator has incorporated the identified lessons learned into actionable and targeted safety recommendations, reviewed existing regulatory requirements for gaps, and engaged with stakeholders to implement corrective actions.
… said Tom Jenkins, Deputy Commissioner of Maritime Affairs
Incidents by vessel type
Bulk carriers and tankers make up 56% of RMI-registered vessels. Combined, bulk carriers and tankers account for 55% of all reported incidents. The average incident rate across all ship types is 16%. Although bulk carriers (36%) and tankers (20%) exceed the average incident rate of the RMI-registered fleet, the incident rate is proportionate to the size of each of these vessel types within the RMI-registered fleet. MOUs make up 3% of the RMI-registered fleet, however MOUs account for 18% of all reports. As a proportion of the number of reports, MOUs have a higher-than-average incident rate compared to all other vessel types.
Very serious marine casualties
During 2024, 17 very serious marine casualties were reported to the Administrator, compared to 10 in 2023, an increase of 41%. Six of these incidents were related to working at height and resulted in six fatalities, the leading cause of death during 2024. Three separate incidents involving seafarers being struck by a moving object resulted in three fatalities. Two separate enclosed space entry incidents resulted in the loss of two lives.
Two RMI-documented seafarers were fatally injured after being struck by falling objects in two separate incidents. Two fatalities occurred in two separate incidents by electrocution and asphyxiation. Two further very serious marine casualties occurred, one as a result of a collision involving a non-RMI-registered bulk carrier, and the second involving a fire on board an OSV, neither of which resulted in loss of life.
Marine casualties
There were 454 marine casualties reported to the Administrator during 2024. These have been classified by the primary incident type and are shown on the chart below as a percentage of the total marine casualties reported during 2024.
There was a reduction in the total number of loss of propulsion, pollution, loss of electrical power, and flooding incidents in 2024 compared to 2023. However, incidents related to serious injury, collision/allision, grounding, structural damage, reduction of propulsion, and loss of LSAs were greater than those reported in 2023.
Marine incidents
There were a total of 314 marine incidents reported to the Administrator during 2024. These have been classified by the primary incident type and are shown on the below chart as a percentage of the total marine incidents reported during 2024. Marine incidents increased by 28% in 2024 compared to 2023.
A significant proportion of these marine incidents were attributed to an increase in pollution cases, the majority of which were reported to have occurred within the RMI-registered MOU fleet. A reduction of propulsion incidents also contributed to this 28% increase in 2024 across varying vessel types.
Occurrences
There were 169 occurrences reported to the Administrator during 2024. These have been classified by the primary incident types and are shown on the chart below as a percentage of the total occurrences reported during 2024. These include primary incident type which would normally be classified as marine casualties or marine incidents but have been classified as occurrences due to their specific nature and circumstances. There was a significant increase in 2024 in the number of serious injuries and safety of navigation related incidents.
The former can be attributed to the number of passenger vessels within the RMI-registered fleet and includes serious injuries, which were not connected to the operation of the vessel, and did not involve an RMI-documented seafarer. The increase in the number of safety of navigation related cases can be attributed to instances whereby RMI-registered vessels failed to abide, or conform, to internationally recognized recommended routing measures.
