Posted: March 4th, 2024

Human Factors in Maritime Safety: A Study of Fatigue, Stress, and Decision-Making among Nigerian Seafarers

Human Factors in Maritime Safety: A Study of Fatigue, Stress, and Decision-Making among Nigerian Seafarers
1. Introduction
1.1 Background of the Study
1.2 Research Objectives
1.3 Significance of the Study
2. Literature Review
2.1 Overview of Human Factors in Maritime Safety
2.2 Fatigue and its Impact on Seafarers
2.3 Stress and its Influence on Seafarers’ Performance
2.4 Decision-Making in Maritime Context
3. Methodology
3.1 Research Design
3.2 Data Collection Procedures
3.3 Sample Selection
3.4 Data Analysis Techniques
4. Findings and Online assignment help tutors – Discussion
4.1 Analysis of Fatigue Levels among Nigerian Seafarers
4.2 Evaluation of Stress Factors Experienced by Nigerian Seafarers
4.3 Examination of Decision-Making Patterns among Nigerian Seafarers
4.4 Comparison of Findings with Existing Literature

Human Factors in Maritime Safety: A Study of Fatigue, Stress, and Decision-Making among Nigerian Seafarers
1. Introduction
The Nigerian maritime industry is one of the most dangerous occupational sectors in the country. This observation is demonstrably represented by the high number of safety investigations, near misses, and actual accidents that occur. The risks that workers are exposed to put them under unhealthy work conditions. Seafarers employed in the Nigerian maritime industry are not insulated from these risks. Research on seafarers has, for instance, revealed that they are among the workers in any nation’s maritime industry who work under the most stressful conditions. These stressful working conditions have led not only to ill-health and poor job satisfaction but also to reduced safety levels for seafarers in the industry. In addition to stress, seafarers are also known to work under conditions of mental and physical tiredness, referred to as fatigue. Persons suffering from fatigue feel very tired. They are also unable to focus on the tasks they have to do and may also suffer from a lack of concentration. As a result, the inability to make sound judgments makes fatigue, like stress, a very serious danger to the safety of seafarers. It has been suggested that most accidents and dangerous occurrences in most safety-critical industries like the aviation and maritime industry can be attributed, to a greater or lesser extent, to human errors. Key human factors that have been identified as causal determinants of such accidents and dangerous occurrences in various safety-critical systems include: the design of the working environment and workstations, the nature, task and demands of the work people have to undertake, the effects of the organizational culture and how organizations manage change, the effects of work-related stress, and the effects of fatigue and sleep loss on human performance. This academic research project sets out to examine the issue of human factors in Nigerian maritime safety, with a particular focus on fatigue, stress, and the complex and interrelated issue of working conditions and the mental health of seafarers. This chapter therefore introduces the research by setting out the generic aim of the study and provides some background to the project. With this in mind, the objectives of the research are explored in the following section.
1.1 Background of the Study
However, the maritime literature resource has sufficiently addressed the issue of human performance and the issue of fatigue stress and work error, but majorly on seafarers of other nations. There is no record of study on Nigerian seafarers on these grounds, bearing in mind the large chunk of global water mass and the international significance of Nigerian seafarers to the international population. This has no doubt created a knowledge gap which this study is poised to fill. Also, the International Labour Organization (ILO) Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) of 2006 – Write a paper; Professional research paper writing service – Best essay writers aims to ensure that seafarers are given decent employment conditions and to ensure their health and safety whilst at work. However, despite Nigeria being a signatory to this convention, the issue of little or no consideration of maritime safety with respect to seafarers’ fatigue and stress is a dilemma. Therefore, it is expected that this study will provide empirical research data for policies and regulations geared towards improving seafarers’ working conditions in Nigeria.
1.2 Research Objectives
The research aims to achieve the following specific objectives:
1. To establish the factors contributing to fatigue among Nigerian seafarers in the maritime industry.
2. To investigate the physical, operational, and environmental elements in the working environment of seafarers that result in fatigue and its associated performance decrement.
3. To evaluate and recognize the working conditions on board ships, other than watchkeepers, which require special attention as a potential source of fatigue.
4. To identify and evaluate the sources of stress affecting seafarers’ attitudes and behaviors and to consider methods of reducing and avoiding stress.
5. Assess the stress factors of Nigerian seafarers in the maritime industry using different methods, including ways of identifying whether they are stressed and to find out the levels of stress that exist in the maritime industry and how best to avoid it.
6. To demonstrate the best possible selection of crew members and make sure that they carry out their jobs to the highest level, taking into consideration fatigue and stress factors.
7. To investigate the effect of different improvements in the shipboard working environment, the improvement of elicitations (for example, alarm and indications design) on performance and the reduction in incidents through a reduction in stress and fatigue levels on board ships.
1.3 Significance of the Study
The maritime industry is a multimillion-dollar industry that is responsible for the trade by sea and the livelihoods and welfare of billions of people around the world. According to a report by DNV GL and the industry trade group, Business for Social Responsibility, the maritime industry is responsible for the carriage of 90% of global trade and is a major contributor to the global economy. There are many factors and documentary solutions which have been proposed in order to improve safe navigation of ships, ranging from technological advances to better training for seafarers. While these are all important, the human element in maritime safety, that is, the contribution of individuals’ competencies, their behaviors and their cognitive and sensory capacities to the safe operation of ships is often given less attention. This neglect is in the face of international data and national reports on the causes of shipping accidents which shows that nearly 80% of the accidents at sea are caused by human error. In this context, maritime safety research takes a vested interest in the understanding and mitigation of the hazards that people face while operating and/or being passengers on vessels which move through water. The collective current knowledge in the field states that maritime accidents most frequently result from a breakdown in communication, a failure of situational awareness, complacency with tasks and low standards of compliance with internationally accepted safe practices. This is because such errors often lead to a hazardous event that must be quickly and effectively controlled through the use of reasoned actions by the operator, which yet again bring the focus back to the cognitive strengths and weaknesses of the persons involved in the operation. My study aims to contribute to this key focus of current maritime safety research by applying high fidelity eye tracking tests in a mobile maritime research lab, the first of its kind to be used in high motion maritime environments in the world, in order to examine operators’ performance, visual search strategies and workload in different sea states. With this evidence, I hope to inform the ongoing development of international and national policies and legal instruments such as the International Maritime Organization’s strategies for the reduction of major accidents and the European Union’s third maritime safety package. My ultimate vision for this study is that it will help move the safeguarding of the maritime environment and the improvement of the safety of vessels from a focus on documentary navigation solutions to a more comprehensive, integrated and human-aware approach. By better understanding the cognitive constraints of persons involved in the operation of vessels, such as limitations in attention or memory, we are better placed to develop control and protective mechanisms that account for dynamic interactions between the technology on board, the layout and conditions of the vessel and human operators. This thus will significantly enhance our response to non-compliant and deficient human behaviors and the design of novel, human-focused prevention strategies.
2. Literature Review

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