In its latest digital bulletin, BIMCO focused on the challenges that shipping players are facing around COVID-19 and the crew changes operations.
During the second wave of the pandemic, BIMCO reminds that the crew change crisis still affects the industry, while creates new concerns.
In fact, BIMCO’s journalist and maritime content creator, Namrata Nadkarni, noted that “there are growing concerns that shipping industry could lose skilled crew, particularly young seafarers, to land based facilities”.
Therefore, operators will struggle to find seafarers to relieve incumbent crew.
It is known that due to the crew change crisis seafarers are waiting to land, unable to get onboard. As a result, they are looking for land-based work, since they’re running out of money and additional funds.
What is more, there is also a vital risk of loss of institutional knowledge. Specifically, STEM skills such as engineering, are transferable to manufacturing companies.
In light of the situation, Steven Jones the founder of the Seafarers Happiness Index, explained that younger generations of seafarers are likely to leave sea and seek for a new career opportunity on land.
Seafarers are passionate a lot, but that passion can be tranferred to something else, particularly if people cannot find paying work or find that their mental health and quality onboard isn’t acceptable.