Shortage of mariners raises concern that shipping accidents will rise

A freighter's oil spill in San Francisco Bay last week has highlighted a worldwide dearth of 10,000 officers.

from the November 16, 2007 edition

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And it's more rare for someone without the degree to rise up into officer ranks.

"In the old days it was possible to go down to the waterfront and get someone to say, 'Sure, I'll take you onboard, and you start out as a deckhand, and you work your way up,' " says Doug Webster, director of public relations at CMA.

This inability to "come up the hawsepipe," and the more demanding certification process, deters the less academically inclined.

As for the glamour of seeing the world, mariners don't see much beyond the deep blue sea these days. The move to container shipping means port calls that once lasted days are now cut down to mere hours.

Meanwhile, Asian countries like the Philippines, China, and India are training more people to be seafarers – but they don't stick with it, with only 8 percent of officers from East Asia over 50 years old.

"The [Asian universities] are recruiting people from the countryside, the farming regions, to move them up the economic scale. Their mentality isn't to go to sea. They want to go ashore and be with family," says Keever.

The shortfall has begun to factor into the thinking about increasingly expensive insurance claims. Shipping operators pool their resources to handle major claims. These big claims are up dramatically across most of the international clubs, with last year marking a record.

"We believe that the rapid growth of the world fleet coupled with a severe shortage of experienced seafarers is one key factor," reads a 2007 report from the North of England P&I Club. Other factors cited by the industry: growing sea traffic and increased value of ships and cargo.

In the case of the Cosco Busan, the National Transportation Safety Board has tested the instruments on board and found no anomalies so far. The pilot told NTSB that the two radar systems failed prior to the accident.

His lawyer elaborated to local media that he was unfamiliar with the symbols on the electronic chart system (ECS) so he asked the captain in English for clarification. The captain – in this account – wrongly identified the bridge footing as the passageway for the ship.

The Chinese captain and crew have not given their side of the story, and their lawyers have shielded them from NTSB.

"I could see where [the ECS] could be confusing to someone if it's not set up the way you're used to having it set up, or if there's too much info and it's cluttered up, or you don't put enough info on for safe navigation," says Sam Pecota, assistant professor of marine transportation at CMA. But symbols ECS-makers use shouldn't differ much among the dozen or so systems used by most big ships, he says.

Pilots are not trained on every possible ECS because they are constantly changing, says Pat Maloney, executive director of the San Francisco Bar Pilots Association. Pilots tend to have served as captains, then spend several additional years training. Bay Area pilots make more than $450,000 a year.

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