Let’s stop treating warning signs at sea as just part of the job, writes Ronald Spithout, managing director of OneHealth by VIKAND.
As the festive season approaches, many people look forward to rest, celebration and time with family and friends.
However, for many seafarers, this period is spent miles away from home, often working long hours in isolation. The holidays can magnify what already exists onboard: fatigue, loneliness, burnout, harassment, broken rest patterns, and sinking morale. Each issue is concerning on its own, but together they highlight that too many red flags have become normalised within life at sea.
The most recent Seafarers Happiness Index (SHI) confirms what many crew members already feel. Wellbeing scores slipped from 7.54 to 7.05 in Q3 of 2025, reversing earlier gains. The steepest decline came from physical health and exercise and is one of the most significant drops seen to date.
This is more than a statistic. Physical fitness, mental wellbeing and onboard safety are deeply intertwined, so the reduced ability to exercise means lower resilience, decreased mental strength and increased health risks. Also, when rest and recreation fall to the bottom of the priority list, fatigue accumulates, which can lead to a decline in focus and a rise in operational risk. When emotional strain already runs high, these pressures can become even harder to bear over the festive season.
It’s no secret that fatigue is still one of the sector’s most entrenched problems. Maritime work patterns clash with natural sleep cycles, workloads continue to grow, and rest-hour violations are so common that falsified logs are frequently treated as routine.
Chronic fatigue impairs judgement on a scale similar to alcohol intoxication, yet few vessels have mechanisms to detect or address it. The SHI’s recent drop in physical health scores only reinforces that fatigue is tightening its grip on the industry.
Studies highlight that persistent exhaustion threatens both safety and welfare, and that effective mitigation requires proactive engagement, continuous monitoring and onboard support. It should not be left to emergency responses once something has already gone wrong.
Fatigue also feeds into burnout, frustration and deteriorating morale. This isn’t only about hours worked, it’s about whether people feel valued, respected and connected and when stress is constant, even the strongest crew members can reach breaking point.
Initiatives such as the International Maritime Organization’s My Harassment-Free Ship show that positive onboard culture doesn’t grow from policies alone. It demands daily commitment from leadership, trusted reporting systems and an environment where psychological safety matters just as much as physical safety.
Perhaps the most heartbreaking indicator is the rise in suicides at sea. VIKAND has repeatedly called for proactive action as suicide has overtaken accidents as the leading cause of death among seafarers. Stigma and isolation frequently stop seafarers from seeking help however early recognition, peer support and timely access to professional can all help to prevent these tragedies.
Treating crew health as an investment, and not an expense, delivers measurable gains such as improved safety, better retention and stronger vessel performance. When early signs are monitored and acted upon, minor issues rarely escalate. When organisations focus on physical, mental and environmental wellbeing, they reduce risk and create sustainable working conditions from ship to shore.
A recent report from RightShip highlights that wellbeing is becoming a commercial differentiator, with 40% of respondents saying crew welfare strongly influences chartering decisions. In reality, that number should be higher but futureproofing the maritime industry requires alignment from owners, managers, charterers and regulators.
Ultimately, the issue is not just the red flags themselves, but our willingness to acknowledge and act on them. Allowing warning signs to fade into the background doesn’t build resilience, it builds risk and during a time of year when seafarers feel more distant and lonely than ever, the industry must send a clear message that their wellbeing matters every day, not only when a crisis emerges.
