Reported serious injuries and fatalities

Serious injuries (2020-2023)

Figure 11 shows the number of serious injuries to seafarers reported to AMSA between 2020 and 2023.

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Figure 11 Number of serious injuries¹ reported to AMSA 2020-2023

Table 7 shows the number of serious injuries reported by regulated Australian vessels and foreign-flagged vessels. It should be noted that regulated Australian vessels report to AMSA regardless of their geographical location. Foreign-flagged vessels are only required to report injuries that occur in Australian waters.

Table 7 Breakdown of serious injuries split by regulated Australian vessels and foreign-flagged vessels, 2020-2023

Fatalities (2021-2023)

AMSA categorises all deaths at sea according to the taxonomy² below:

• Operational
• Illness/disease
• Person overboard (presumed deceased)
• Suicide

The total number of seafarer fatalities reported to AMSA from 2019 to 2023 includes fatalities which occurred within the Australian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)³ and fatalities which occurred outside of the Australian EEZ but were still reported to AMSA.

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Figure 12 Total reported seafarer fatalities by jurisdiction, type of fatality and year, 2019-2023

There has been a decrease in reported fatalities by illness/disease in 2023. It is likely the higher numbers reported for 2020 and 2021 may have been exacerbated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

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Figure 13 Proportion of reported deaths by fatality type 2021-2023 (combined)

Illness/disease continues to make up most of the reported fatalities as seen in Figure 13. However, it is difficult to ascertain whether this is consistent with global trends due to the lack of data being made available by flag States. In 2022, AMSA submitted a proposal to mandate the requirement to report all fatalities at sea to the International Labour Organization at the 4th meeting of the MLC Special Tripartite Committee (STC). The STC agreed to the proposal for deaths of seafarers on board vessels to be reported annually to the International Labour Organization (ILO) and for the relevant data to be published in a global register. These amendments will enter into force in December 2024.

Fatality rate

In 2023, the fatality rate (the number of fatalities per 100,000 seafarers⁴ ) for foreign flagged vessels in Australia’s Exclusive Economic Zone was 1.1. This is lower than the three-year average fatality rate of 1.8 as per Table 8.  This three-year average fatality rate is slightly higher than the Australian national fatality five-year average rate of 1.4⁵ .

Also noted by the SafeWork Australia’s Work-related, traumatic injury fatalities Australia 2021 report, fatality rates are sensitive to the number of people employed in the industry and this may be particularly evident with small variation in the number of fatalities for smaller industries that employ fewer employees⁶ . Therefore, the actual number of fatalities needs to be considered when interpreting the fatality rates for this data.

Table 8:  Fatality rate per 100,000 seafarers

Footnotes

¹ AMSA classifies serious injuries to include injuries that require emergency treatment, in most cases leading to an emergency medivac from the vessel and/or hospitalisation.

² Refer to the glossary of the report.

³ The Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) is an area beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea. The outer limit of the exclusive economic zone cannot exceed 200M from the baseline from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured. The Australian EEZ is defined in the Seas and Submerged Lands Act 1973 ('the SSL Act').

⁴ Based on a calculated approximation of 90,000 seafarers engaged on foreign flagged vessels in Australian waters in 2022.

⁵ Safe Work Australia, Key Work Health and Safety Statistics Australia, 2023

⁶ Safe Work Australia, Work-related, traumatic injury fatalities Australia 2021\