Fatigue-induced grounding

The UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) issued the report of its investigation of the grounding of a general cargo ship near Larne, Northern Ireland on 29 June 2008. Report No. 7/2009 (2/19/09). The primary cause of the grounding was that the officer of the watch fell asleep and there was no one else on the bridge and no operating alarm system. The MAIB focused on the lack of robust international standards promulgated by IMO. It urged the UK Government to press for development of such international standards and to unilaterally enforce all existing requirements regarding fatigue and posting of dedicated lookouts. There seem to be many players in the fatigue problem: individual mariner, master, ship manager/operator, owner, charterer, class society, insurer, port state, flag state, IMO, and ILO. Your comments are solicited regarding which of these can effectively address the problem and how.

From Bryant’s Blog