Safety Regimes practices and how they are managed in maritime operations and their ability to prevent and mitigate operational risks.

Shipping companies and ship management companies are responsible for complying with the established safety regulations and industry standards in Maritime. The challenge for these companies lies in balancing commercial pressures and overlapping safety regimes, which rarely cover the full risk view. At the same time, they must deal with sub-optimal systems, vessels that have unique technological set-ups, the introduction of new technologies on board, and highly complex operations. In addition, the demand for a higher level of knowledge among seafarers reinforces the need for a more holistic approach to safety and risk management in the maritime sector, where complexity, uncertainty assessments, and psychological factors must be considered. This study aims to examine which risks can be addressed using existing maritime safety practices and subsequently develop a framework to handle the risks that cannot be managed with the current safety practices. The research will simulate and test new methods, both in a controlled environment and through full-scale operations on board ships.

In today's maritime operations, safety compliance faces challenges due to frequent changes in operations, technology, and business needs. These constant changes make it difficult for not-so-frequently updated safety compliance regimes to optimize risks for the operation of the vessels effectively. Usually, we can examine two perspectives on how ships are operated. In one perspective, the captain has a ship that's designed well and works perfectly, with clear instructions to follow. If they stick to these instructions, everything should go smoothly. If something goes wrong, it's seen as the crew's fault for not following the procedures. This viewpoint emphasizes the idea of how work is planned to be done, and it blames errors on the crews. The other perspective is conflicting goals and priorities that may cause poor decisions that result in incidents. This captures a large part of the challenges the traditional maritime segments such as tank, bulk, container, RoRo/Ropax, cruise, and supply are facing in their understanding of risk and safety practices, and they are managing it. The candidate noticed that terms like "safety" and "risk" are often used interchangeably by these mentioned stakeholders. Concepts like “uncertainty in risk” and “knowledge of operator” aren't usually talked about when discussing risk. The overemphasis on Safety Rules and Safety Compliance can create an environment where individuals are more focused on following established protocols than on executing according to the best solution The audit and compliance regimes grow without much focus from the stakeholders in the industry – it’s just another “compliance job to be done” and felt like a “pain in the ass” and with no value for the operation. Sometimes it can be felt like an infectious disease that maritime hasn't yet managed to find a cure for.