Article citation information:
Melnyk,
O., Onyshchenko, S., Koryakin,
K. Nature and origin of major security concerns and potential threats to
the shipping industry. Scientific Journal
of Silesian University of Technology. Series Transport. 2021, 113, 145-153. ISSN: 0209-3324. DOI: https://doi.org/10.20858/sjsutst.2021.113.11.
Oleksiy MELNYK[1], Svitlana ONYSHCHENKO[2], Kostyantin KORYAKIN[3]
NATURE AND ORIGIN OF MAJOR SECURITY CONCERNS AND POTENTIAL THREATS TO
THE SHIPPING INDUSTRY
Summary. During the
last decades, maritime security has always stood as a separate critical
problem for both shipowners and crews of sea-going
ships, characterized by alternating periods of relative stability and periods
of occurrence and growth of new threats, which proceeded from times of sailing
fleet to an epoch of iron steam shipbuilding. Certainly, it is difficult to
overestimate the significant role of the scientific community, which has been
researching this problem for a long time, studying its scientific and
practical sides. The professional experience of seafarers in sufficient
measure, served as a basis of interest to this question, has led to the
development of strategies and complex measures, which until now provided safety
for ships and their crewmembers. Without recent advances in maritime security,
shipping as an industry would not be able to reach the current level of
reliability in shipping processes. Each generation of humanity has prioritized
maritime security, contributing to improving its standards and stressing the
importance of continuous development of the theoretical base. At least 23
million tons of cargo and 55,000 passengers move daily by water transport, so
the concept of maritime safety applies not only to the safety of life at
sea, ship and cargo security but also to the prevention of maritime accidents
and pollution. The increasing share of sea and river transport in the
international cargo and passenger turnover leads to the need to increase
demands on maritime safety and security.
Keywords: maritime
security, shipping safety, potential threats
1. INTRODUCTION
Transportation safety is a top priority,
particularly in the area of merchant shipping. Ensuring safety navigation has
always been among topical issues commanding increased attention. Over the past
centuries, designers and shipbuilders of sea-going ships have made enormous
progress. Ships have grown in size, speed and tonnage. Accordingly, this has
affected the safety of these ships in terms of navigational factors, that is,
seaworthiness, cargo characteristics and the influence of the human factor,
which occupies a special place among the causes of fleet accidents and directly
affects the statistics of accidents and shipwrecks. Operation of a sea-going
ship as an object of navigation safety is influenced by more frequent cases of
maritime terrorism, pirate attacks, illegal trade and transportation of
narcotic substances. During this research, the basic factors, which threatens a
ship’s safety, their components are revealed, the main normative
documents and literature, principles of their realization for maintenance of
monitoring of the safety of a vessel were analyzed.
Research of the shipping safety concept leads
to the conclusion that ensures that the coastal industry workers and the
ship’s crew consider the safety of navigation as a joint decision of this
task. The scientific
community and international maritime organizations have always noted the issues
of increasing safety on water transport, ensuring the safety of ship operation.
Thus, works [1, 3, 4] are devoted to statistical data
analysis and review of losses and incidents at sea. Papers [2, 5, 7, 12] describe the issues of passengers’ perceptions of
safety and security, ensuring principles and categories of safety assistance
and maritime policy and the safety of the European Union. Illegal maritime drug
trafficking is considered in [6]. Study of factors providing sufficient
opportunities for the emergence and development of piracy, their impact on the
level of security, and the negative effect on profitability in the shipping
industry were reviewed in [8-10, 14]. Maritime security problems and ways to
solve them were examined in [11, 15, 16]. Thus, the
review of works on the chosen topic of research shows the need to identify the
main threats to maritime navigation, study the classification of these factors
and analyze the degree of their impact on the system of shipping safety.
2. MATERIALS AND METHODS
Since the worldwide shipping industry is involved in transporting up to 90% of global merchandise, the safety of its ships
is critical. However, during the pandemic 2020 year, the number of total reported ship losses
greater than 100 GRT fell to 41, the lowest this century
and a nearly 70% decline in
10 years. On the other hand, technological advances in improvements of ship design and shipping technology, stricter regulations in risk management,
and the implementation of more
robust safety management systems and procedures on ships are among
the factors for long-term improvement in losses in the global fleet.
In 2018 alone, the number of ship losses dropped by nearly a quarter from the previous year to 53, although the 2019-2020 ship loss data was not increased and were 48 and 49, respectively. Bad weather conditions were reportedly the primary cause of one in five episodes. Loss year 2019 represents a significant improvement over the rolling decade and an average of 95 cases – a decrease of more than 50% [1].
According to Casualty Statistics and the Lloyds Casualty Week Publication, in one single decade between 1994 and 2004, 6,693 people died and 2,225 medium and large ships were lost because of accidents in the world fleet. In the 10-year period from 2009 to 2019, the world fleet lost only 48 bulk carriers of more than 10,000 tons deadweight to accidental causes alongside 188 seafarers. The most common causes of vessel loss, 19 of the 48, were groundings. In nine cases, bulk carriers were lost due to cargo spillage and 101 seafarers lost their lives. Ratio of causes of maritime accidents in the world fleet as a whole is represented in the following list: dangerous roll, weather phenomena, damage, landings, technical reasons, destructions, hull leakage, fires, explosions, capsizing, collisions, shipwrecks, and others (Figure 1).
Fig. 1. The ratio of maritime accident causes in the global shipping year 2020
The main
share of accidents is always damage to the ship's hull and destruction of its
structural integrity. The next largest share of accidents is failure and
malfunction of the ship’s technical facilities and mechanisms. Further in
descending order: blockage, loss of stability, water tightness failure, fires,
explosions, etc. Figure 1 shows the same diagram as a percentage of the total
number of accidents. The main contribution to the accidents is the violation of
the procedures of the ship’s technical operation and its equipment and
ship handling errors in the context of breaching the COLREG (International
Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea). Few accidents are related to the
loss of stability. Mainly accidents not related to the human factor account for
28%. Therefore, the other 72% is caused by the violation of operation rules and
the human factor errors of the ship crew. Around 72-80% of accidents around the
world are caused by the human factor; hence, it is not peculiar to shipping
[2].
Recent
years reported 23,073 marine casualties and incidents from 2011 to 2018, the
total number of ships involved was 25,614; however, a total of 3,174 maritime
casualties and incidents was reported in 2019 according to [3]. General cargo
ships were the main category involved in marine casualties or incidents
(43.8%), followed by passenger ships (23.7%).
Since
2018 and subsequent years, the number of ships involved in marine casualties or
incidents has either stabilized or slightly decreased in all ship categories,
except other ships (Figure 2). The number of other ships involved increased
almost by 63.7% when compared with 2017 [4].
Fig. 2. Number of ships by type involved in accidents
Statistics
show a steady growth trend in the number of accidents, with ship collisions in
the first place among all types of accidents (20.5%). The human factor is the
dominant cause of accidents in shipping. Thus, investigations have shown that
75% of accidents at sea are caused by human errors, irrespective of the cause
of the accident (Figure 3). Only about 10% of accidents result from force
majeure, while about 15% result from technical defects of ships and unexpected
failure of shipboard equipment. Most frequent accidents resulted from
navigational reasons, such as grounding and collisions. There is a reason to
believe that this trend will continue in the near future. At the same time,
indicators for technical types of emergencies are now reduced; for fires and
explosions, they are practically stable. The accident investigation reports show
that the navigator's work on the ships is not properly organized. The reasons
for ship collisions are often lack of good maritime practice, insufficient
professional training of ship crews, wrong actions of traffic control services,
poor quality of ship’s maintenance and repair. The reasons for the
growing number of accidents in the shipping industry lie in the economic,
technical, informational aspects, as well as in the human factor [5].
Fig. 3. The main reasons influencing accidents
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
To identify contemporary threats to
shipping and better understand their origin, it is necessary to consider the
historical factor by way of solving the problems of maritime safety.
Remarkably, the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 forced the major shipowners of that time, under public pressure, to
negotiate and adopt the first, although not the final version of the
international SOLAS Convention, which had already
been approved two years after the subject disaster that claimed the lives of
over 1500 passengers and crew. Thereafter, it was successively revised and
supplemented; however, other ships sunk for different reasons with a
significant number of victims [12, 13]. In particular, the first steps were
aimed at establishing uniform safety standards for merchant ships and
regulation of the total number of lifeboats onboard, as well as other emergency
equipment necessary for the safety of passengers and crew. However, like any
regulatory instrument, the convention has undergone long periods of updating by
way of successive forms and periodic amendments, which have been adapted to the
pace of technological progress and development of the shipping industry as an
individual industry. In practice, the procedure for implementing the various
amendments has proceeded at an unsatisfactory pace, leading to the realization
that the adoption and entry into force of the necessary amendments within the
required period would not be possible. Subsequently, during the meeting on
November 1, 1974, the International Conference for the Safety of Life at Sea
finally approved the new text of the SOLAS
Convention, which in one form or another, has survived to the present day.
Further improvement of
the Convention and new challenges to international maritime safety and security
led to the development and adoption of a new chapter XI-2 of the Convention (SOLAS74) and with it the International Ship and Port
Facility Security Code (ISPS Code). These documents have established and
unified the minimum safety standards, which are obligatory for the
participating countries in the international maritime traffic and
transportation of cargoes and passengers. It served as an important step to the
world community on the way to creating a global system of maritime safety and
security. According to this code, the organization classified the main threats
to international maritime security as follows: terrorism, piracy, theft of
cargo and ship's property, drug and weapon smuggling, transportation of illegal
migrants, cybercrimes (Figure 4).
In the
context of consideration of threats of the main problems of security and
potential threats to the shipping industry, it is necessary to stop the most
prominent of them, directly influencing the international maritime security
where it is possible to allocate with confidence the most significant, which
today are:
- transnational organized
crime, including illicit trafficking in drugs, arms, weapons and people;
- terrorism;
- piracy and armed robbery at sea
(Figure 5).
Illicit
trafficking of drugs and psychotropic substances by sea poses a serious threat
to maritime security. Approximately 70% of all seized drugs are either seized in
time or after they have been transported by sea. Maritime transport has some
advantages over other modes of transport in this respect, namely: the relative
ease of concealing drugs in packages and cargo containers and ship rooms, the
significant number of contacts ship crewmembers have with foreigners in the
ports of entry and the difficulties of identifying criminal connections among
them. Maritime transport accounts for 37.6% of the total amount of drugs
seized. In comparison, land transport accounts for 25.4%, air transport 5.4%,
post 0.7% and other methods of drug smuggling 30.9%. However, the volume of
illicit drug trafficking by merchant ships continues to increase [6].
Fig. 4. Main threats to
international shipping
Fig. 5. Major threats to maritime security
The
industry of the slave trade dates back to ancient Egypt. This type of activity
largely determined the economies of the nations of that time. The African
continent was the center of invasive raids by Arab traders who transported
local people as slaves to Greece, Rome, and Turkey. However, black people were
not the only prey of the invaders. Eventually, European merchant ships were
seized by pirates who enslaved the Europeans onboard. Today, the problem of
slavery and human trafficking is not a rare phenomenon and ranks third in the
world after drug trade and illicit arms trafficking on the black market. The socio-economic
backwardness of developing countries is a dangerous phenomenon both locally and
internationally. Smuggling and human trafficking by sea increase the number of
people who enter countries illegally; these people are smuggled migrants and
victims of human trafficking. Among the reasons for clandestine migration, we
should mention human rights violations, economic deprivation, natural
disasters, and depletion of natural resources [7].
Maritime
terrorism poses a serious threat to maritime security, undercuts the
universally recognized principle of freedom of the seas and often poses a
threat to peace. Like piracy, it is a crime of an international nature. In
their methods and means of implementation, maritime terrorism and piracy are
very similar. The only difference is in the objectives pursued by the
perpetrators: for pirates, the main thing is enrichment and profiteering, while
the goal of terrorists is to intimidate the authorities to meet their, as a
rule, political demands [10]. From our point of view, as applied to the
problems of maritime security, the concept of "terrorism" mainly
refers to violent actions of social actors against passengers and crew of
ships, against moving or coastal objects, committed at a time when the society
does not offer resistance.
An
analysis of terrorist actions that have occurred in various countries around
the world reveals a trend of increasing scale and the use of new threats using
maritime means of transport. Seaports, ships, including those with nuclear power
units, and carriers of passengers and dangerous goods are the most vulnerable
to escalating terrorist threats. Many modern ocean-going vessels are highly
automated and can be operated by a crew of 20. It is not too difficult to train
a terrorist group of this size and the likelihood of terrorist attacks is quite
high.
The first mentions of acts of piracy refer to the inception of merchant
shipping and as an armed robbery at sea has been known since time immemorial.
Some sources [9] give information dating back to VI B.C. There is also a
statement that with the departure of the first merchant ship, a pirate ship
followed it. The reasons for the emergence of piracy are related to the fact
that, primarily, poor people joined the pirates. In addition, the desire for
easy profits forced more captains to become pirates. In summary, piracy is one
of the oldest threats not only to maritime navigation but also to the political
interests of the maritime powers, which are a potential threat nowadays
primarily to the rights and freedoms of every person to life, liberty and
security of person. As we know, pirates are not a global force; their attacks
are severely limited by location. First, it is the Gulf of Aden and the waters
to the east and southeast. The second region with high risks of pirate attacks
in the Strait of Malacca. The pirates in different locations, understandably,
are different. The third hot spot is the Gulf of Guinea and others that are
less tense.
Piracy emerged, evolved, and changed along with seafaring (Figure 6).
The role and attitude toward piracy have changed. It can be argued that piracy
existed with varying intensity in all coastal countries. Piracy has not
disappeared and currently exists largely due to the lack of state and political
structure or low level of social and economic development of some coastal
countries. In this case, the problem of piracy can be solved only through the
active participation of various international organizations and the development
of a set of appropriate international legal measures [15, 16].
Threats
to maritime security, while predictable, nevertheless, by definition, have an
element of unexpectedness. Accordingly, to confront the challenges, it is
necessary, on the one hand, to regulate the actions of people, and on the other
hand - a creative approach to the assessment of threats and ways of their
neutralization [11].
4. CONCLUSION
The
growth rate of world trade and the intensity of international shipping
principally determines the increase of the accident rate of the world fleet.
However, in parallel, there are also threats to maritime security, as evidenced
by the analysis of accidents in the world fleet in recent decades and the
analysis of statistical data on the types of accidents on ships. The main causes of shipwrecks and the
ratio of the main causes of maritime accidents in the world shipping to the
total number of accidents were studied and revealed. All aforesaid points to
the fact that the inability to solve the problems of shipping security using
traditional methods, such as ship management by ship's crew, is a reason to
create and implement new and more effective systems of maritime security, which
is actual and among the priority tasks.
Fig. 6. Number of pirate attacks worldwide 2010-2020 by Statista 2021
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Received 17.10.2021; accepted in
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