Waypoints Issue 02: Wellness at Sea, Wellness on Shore

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<strong>Issue</strong> <strong>02</strong> WAYPOINTS
A Maritime
Risk Management
Consultancy
Qwest meets ship owners’ and oper<strong>at</strong>ors’ existing
and emerging needs through a range of innov<strong>at</strong>ive
marine claims, legal, and investig<strong>at</strong>ive solutions.
While such a situ<strong>at</strong>ion is a traum<strong>at</strong>ic
experience – and should be tre<strong>at</strong>ed as such
in the afterm<strong>at</strong>h – it is possible to avoid
an even worse outcome, namely seafarers
being kidnapped and held hostage for
several weeks.
At the same time, ensuring a high level
of crew welfare means th<strong>at</strong> shipping
companies must be prepared for the
worst-case scenario. Th<strong>at</strong> includes
contingency plans on the company level,
ensuring a swift reaction after an incident.
It is hard to predict the necessary
measures, which could range from
contact with the respective insurer to
arranging repairs or a replacement crew
on short notice. Furthermore, emergency
contact details must be easily accessible
to keep families informed about a hostage
situ<strong>at</strong>ion, this a be particularly difficult
when crews are recruited from areas
of the world which don’t have the best
communic<strong>at</strong>ion networks.
By and large, it is understandable th<strong>at</strong> many
seafarers are anxious when their ships are
oper<strong>at</strong>ing in the Gulf of Guinea. However,
the thre<strong>at</strong> level is not the same everywhere,
and voyages to ports in Ghana or Gabon are
very different from calls <strong>at</strong> Nigerian ports
or terminals. Moreover, it is possible to
mitig<strong>at</strong>e the risks associ<strong>at</strong>ed with oper<strong>at</strong>ions
even in those parts of the Gulf of Guinea
where the thre<strong>at</strong> of <strong>at</strong>tacks is severe,
underlined by the large number of vessels
transiting those areas every day. Finally, the
rel<strong>at</strong>ively low number of <strong>at</strong>tacks in recent
months should not lead to the assumption
th<strong>at</strong> the thre<strong>at</strong> of kidnap-for-ransom <strong>at</strong>tacks
has disappeared. There has been much
talk of this recently, with the applic<strong>at</strong>ion
to remove the Nigerian EEZ from the JWC
listed areas. However, the rainy season has
always been a quiet period historically, and
it is only now, after the sea st<strong>at</strong>e dropped
towards the end of September, th<strong>at</strong> we will
we start to see if the local and intern<strong>at</strong>ional
efforts are having an impact.
Dirk Siebels
Senior Analyst,
Risk Intelligence
Click here to visit Risk Intelligence
Dirk is a Senior Analyst <strong>at</strong> Risk Intelligence, a Denmark-based security intelligence company where he is responsible
for analysis on countries in sub-Saharan Africa. He holds a PhD from the University of Greenwich, London. His
research concentr<strong>at</strong>es on maritime security issues in sub-Saharan Africa, including the role of ports and maritime
trade, IUU fishing, offshore energy production and the evolution of priv<strong>at</strong>e maritime security providers.
Qwest Investig<strong>at</strong>ion Forensics Care
Qwest Claims and Legal Claims Legal Shipmanagers Demurrage
Qwestmaritime.com Qwest Maritime @QwestMaritime