Purpose of report
Each year, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) receives marine incident notifications involving domestic commercial vessels (DCVs). The reporting of these marine incidents assists AMSA in regulating safety, with the data analysis used to identify emerging trends and issues. The analyses of marine incidents is used to support AMSA’s data driven approach to identifying risks and inform our compliance focus in the coming year.
This report covers an analyses of the 2020 calender year with a comparative trend included for some of the 2019 marine incident data.
Key information
Domestic commercial vessels are categorised by vessel use as per the table below:
| Vessel use category | Reference used in report |
|---|---|
| Class 1 passenger vessels (more than 12 passengers) | Passenger vessels |
| Class 2 non-pasenger vessel (includes vessels carrying less than 12 passengers) | Non-passenger vessels |
| Class 3 fishing vessel | Fishing vessels |
| Class 4 hire and drive vessel used by the hirer only for recreational purposes | Hire and drive vessels |
Marine incidents are classified by AMSA into one of three severity levels which include the following:
| Incident classification | Descriptor |
|---|---|
| Very serious | marine incidents include loss of vessel, loss of life (fatalities) due to the operation of the vessel and serious pollution. |
| Serious | marine incidents (none of the above) include serious injuries (operational), fire, explosion, collision, grounding, contact, heavy weather damage, critical equipment failure (i.e. main engines, steering gear), severe |
| Less serious | marine incidents (none of the above) include minor injuries, main engine stoppage for maintenance, minor contact, minor oil spills, and near misses. |
The anayses of trends includes a breakdown of the vessel categorisation and incident classification.