The 11th BIMCO Tanker Safety Network meeting discussed the growing safety challenge of distraction at sea, with a focus on new guidelines and shared best practices.
The meeting was chaired by Pranesh Kumar, General Manager and Head of Fleet at Hafnia and centred on the theme “Addressing Distraction at Sea,” with discussions anchored in the recently published BIMCO Guidelines for the Management of Distraction-Causing Devices (DCD) on board ships.
The topic was presented by Ashok Srinivasan, BIMCO Regional Manager and Technical Advisor based in Singapore. Real-world case studies, including the Scot Carrier and Bunun Queen collisions, as well as the Ever Forward grounding, highlighted how distraction has played a significant role in major accidents.
These incidents, involving fatalities, loss of vessels and cargo and severe personal consequences for crew members, underscore the urgent need to address distraction as a critical safety issue at sea.
Key topics of discussion
- Defining distraction: Seafarers face distraction from both devices and competing operational tasks. Yet, near misses linked to distractions are rarely recorded.
- Types of distraction: Risks include personal device use by watchkeepers, non-key personnel distracting bridge teams and excessive use of business devices during navigation or engineering duties.
- Cognitive limits: Humans are not naturally equipped for multi-tasking. In stressful situations, focus narrows to a single channel and long re-focus time is needed if attention is broken. Education and awareness are critical.
- Bridge practices: Almost half of participants reported restrictions on device use on the bridge, but none had implemented structured reporting of distraction-related near misses.
- Mental wellbeing: Family interventions and 24/7 connectivity can undermine rest hours and rhythm. Some companies are educating families on appropriate timing of shipboard communication. It was also highlighted that supporting seafarers’ mental health and social wellbeing through counselling or self-help options, can significantly reduce distraction risks.
- Controls in practice: Members shared measures such as zero-tolerance policies for devices on the bridge, tagging systems restricting Wi-Fi during watchkeeping and limiting access to personal devices to mess areas.
- Industry benchmarking: Tanker operations often lead on safety but distraction-related risks are industry-wide and require proactive attention.
Participants highlighted that mental health support is as important as technical controls; although many companies restrict devices on the bridge, few explicitly log distraction-related near misses, with a key message being the need to shift culture around multi-tasking.
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Source: BIMCO
