The Nautical Institute and IMarEST have joined forces to address concerns over the continuing deaths of seafarers and shore workers in enclosed spaces onboard ships.
The risks faced by workers in enclosed spaces on ships. Together they have launched an industry-wide survey which aims to collate feedback from those working on ships to delve deeper into what’s going wrong and understand better what solutions are needed.
Furthermore, the online survey, which can be completed anonymously, asks seafarers to identify what aspects of enclosed space entry present risks for them and questions how involved in safety procedures they have been.
Sadly, from this information we can see that workers are still dying in enclosed spaces onboard ships despite numerous industry interventions. Now we’re conducting an even more in-depth survey which will help us to better understand the situation and empower us to work with industry colleagues to address this unacceptable situation.
The number of enclosed space accidents occurring on an annual basis has not reduced significantly since 1998. In both 2022 and 2023 14 enclosed space incidents were recorded.
However, there was a marked increase in the number of actual casualties in 2023: there were 34 casualties in 2023 compared to 18 in 2022, an almost doubling of the casualty rate.
Initial figures for 2024 indicate that 11 recorded accidents resulted in the deaths of eight seafarers and six contractors, although incident reporting is notoriously slow. For example, an accident reported into the IMO accident investigation module in February this year (2025) actually occurred in 2015.
Moreover, analysing the statistics it has collated, the majority of enclosed space accidents involve senior ranks or stevedores, and the highest percentage of incidents occur on bulk carriers (41%) and tankers (23%). The most frequent locations for life-threatening incidents or deaths occur in the hold and hold access area (51%) with cargo oil tanks also presenting a significant risk (18%).