“Go to sea!”


A campaign to attract entrants to the shipping industry



The global shortage of seafarers, especially officers, has already reached serious proportions, threatening the very future of the international shipping industry, which is the lifeblood of world trade.

Recent reports have identified a current officer supply requirement of 498,000 in 2008, with an officer shortfall of 34,000. This figure is expected to rise to a projected officer shortfall in 2012 of 83,900.

On Monday 17 November, senior figures from the International Labour Organization, from the “Round Table” of shipping NGOs – BIMCO, ICS/ISF, INTERCARGO and INTERTANKO – and from the International Transport Workers Federation joined IMO Secretary-General Efthimios Mitropoulos in launching a major new campaign to address the problem.

for more details please see the documents on the right.

Human Element
Go to sea! campaign
Go to sea! campaign document
Go to sea! IMO powerpoint presentation
Go to sea! ICS/ISF presentations
Go to sea! IMO Secretary-General speech
Links and further information
2010: Year of the Seafarer