Incidents involving groundings and collisions of well-resourced vessels raise the question why vessels operating under compliant systems are not immune to critical failures. Developed by Nautical Nexus[1], in collaboration with the Club, this article explores how emerging technologies can be harnessed to enhance safety through data and behavioural insights.
While traditional audits and documented procedural systems continue to form the backbone of compliance and operations, they may not always capture emerging behavioural or operational risks in real time - particularly those arising during routine operations and/or between audit intervals.
To stay ahead of risk in increasingly complex environments, ship operators may start to explore other avenues. This includes adopting more data-driven, behavioural methods of safety management that go beyond paperwork-based systems and focus on more predictive forms of risk identification.
Unlocking Maritime Safety Through Behavioural Intelligence
Across the maritime industry, there is a growing emphasis on adopting behavioural safety practices to complement traditional, compliance-focused safety systems. Technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP)[2] are increasingly being explored to help ship operators better understand how crews interact with their work environment. It is envisaged that this can support the early detection of risk factors that might otherwise go unnoticed.
The Power of Behavioural Data in Maritime Safety
Many near-misses and incidents in maritime operations are closely associated with human factors. Common behavioural contributors identified in investigation reports include:
- Fatigue-induced lapses
- Breakdowns in communication
- Distraction or inattentiveness
- Deviations from standard procedures that go unnoticed
The European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA)[3] similarly highlights that between 2015 and 2024, 64.5% of accident events were linked to human action and 50.5% of contributing factors were related to human behaviour. When considering both, 78.8% of investigated marine casualties and incidents involved a human element. These trends are consistent across all ship types.
Behavioural data collected through on board cameras and microphones may identify these risks before they escalate into something more serious. For example:
- Bridge team presence can be automatically confirmed using people-counting and movement algorithms.
- Stress or fatigue is detected via voice analysis and speech patterns.
- Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) non-compliance and unauthorised access to restricted zones are flagged in real time.
- Non-work-related mobile phone use during critical navigation is tracked and recorded.
- Equipment Interaction Monitoring (EIM) continuously tracks crew engagement with critical navigation systems, such as RADAR and ECDIS, ensuring essential equipment is actively used and properly attended during operations.
The aim of these systems is to identify risks as they arise, allowing for immediate corrective action.
Data Privacy and Ethical Deployment
The integration of behavioural analytics and on board monitoring technologies must be guided by strong ethical principles and full compliance with applicable data protection regulations. These may include flag state requirements and, where relevant, international frameworks such as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Ensuring informed consent, transparent communication, and secure handling of personal data is essential to maintaining crew trust and legal compliance. Operators must ensure they align technology deployment with legal obligations and best practices in maritime data governance.
Real-World Relevance: What Could Have Been Prevented
Investigations into a grounding incident revealed that the officer on the bridge had fallen asleep during watch, a scenario that underscores the persistent risk of fatigue-related human error, even on compliant vessels.
Traditional systems may not always detect this type of latent failure in real time. However, newer technologies aim to surface these risks earlier through behavioural monitoring and enhanced situational awareness.
Using a combination of AI-powered sensors, new systems aim to:
- Detect the absence of movement, prolonged periods of silence or lack of communication during active navigation.
- Monitor speech patterns for signs of fatigue or drowsiness before critical thresholds are crossed.
When signs of micro-sleep or inattention are detected, the system can trigger an audible on board alarm to immediately alert other crew members or the master – prompting swift intervention before a potential incident.
This approach aims to shift the outcome from reactive discovery to real-time prevention. What might have otherwise ended in damage and investigation can be averted through proactive alerting and informed action.
Moving from Audits to Predictive Safety Models
While essential, traditional audits are periodic and largely dependent on contemporaneous observations and interviews. By contrast, predictive models that use continuous data streams can offer a real-time view of safety performance.
At the core of such systems is a dynamic Risk Index (RI), continuously updated with inputs such as:
- Crew fatigue levels
- Environmental conditions (weather, sea state, radar data)
- Speech patterns and communication effectiveness
- Near-miss events captured by vision and audio analytics
- Behavioural markers
Such RI could empower ship owners and shore-based teams to prioritise interventions, optimise watch schedules, and assist with identifying when and where performance begins to drift from safety standards.
This approach is not about replacing audits, it is about augmenting them with real-time, context-aware intelligence, such as noted in Figure 1 below.
Figure 1: Behavioural activity mapping and movement visualisation
The Digital Logbook: Trusted Communication Records
Another key development in safety technology is the automated digital logbook, which transforms verbal commands and conversations into structured, searchable entries. Unlike handwritten logs, these records:
- Include precise timestamps
- Allow for keyword searches
- Capture tone, stress, and protocol adherence
- Offer audio/video playback for critical moments
During incident investigations, having access to structured, time-stamped communication records could potentially clarify the sequence of events, interactions and decision making. This could greatly reduce the time required for an investigation and establish root causes more efficiently.
This data becomes a verifiable communication trail, strengthening investigations, audits, and compliance reporting.
Strengthening Procedural Systems, Not Replacing Them
For ship operators, incorporating digital tools into their existing procedural systems can provide:
- Continuous monitoring of crew adherence to procedures
- Objective behavioural metrics to inform reviews and training
- Automatic reporting to support recordkeeping requirements
- Real-world, context-rich debriefing tools for incident and near-miss reviews
This approach supports a more proactive, adaptive, and evidence-based procedural system could respond to actual on board behaviours rather than assumptions or retrospective indicators.
The Future of Safety Is Data-Driven
As operations become more complex, demands on crew increase, and industry expectations rise, the path forward indicates that safety systems must evolve from passive documentation to active, predictive guardianship.
The industry is increasingly recognising the benefits of integrating behavioural safety platforms across fleets, using them not only for prevention but also to foster a culture of learning, responsibility, and performance excellence.
Relevance for Smaller and Specialist Vessels
For operators managing smaller and specialist vessels such as tugs, barges, crew boats and coastal vessels, the principles of behavioural safety still hold value. While operational setups may differ from those of deep-sea vessels, challenges such as fatigue, procedural drift and/or distraction remain consistent. Scalable and low-footprint safety technologies can be utilised in these environments to assist and strengthen safety culture and reinforce daily operational discipline.
A key benefit of modular safety systems lies in their adaptability to smaller vessels. Unlike complex surveillance setups that may require multiple sensors across larger vessels, smaller vessels can often be covered effectively with just a few strategically placed sensors. This could allow for behavioural monitoring and proactive risk detection without major hardware installation, offering a more cost-effective and unobtrusive way to introduce predictive safety across a wider range of vessel types.
Conclusion: Evolving Towards Predictive Safety
As the industry navigates an increasingly complex operating landscape, a more proactive approach to safety is beginning to take shape – one that is grounded in data, behavioural insights, and scalable technologies. These tools can detect unsafe trends before they escalate, reinforce procedural compliance, support crew wellbeing through early detection of fatigue or communication breakdowns, and turn everyday operations into meaningful performance insights.
Rather than replacing existing procedural systems, this evolving model strengthens them by bringing real-time context and visibility to safety-critical operations across vessels of all sizes.
[1] Nautical Nexus (founder Kenneth Ruyts - Kenneth.ruyts@nautical-nexus.eu) is a maritime safety technology company focused on leveraging operational data such as motion capture, AI-driven behaviour analysis & Natural Language Processing (NLP) to generate proactive risk intelligence.
[2] Natural Language Processing: An AI technology that allows computers to understand and process human language, both written and spoken.
[3] European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) Annual Overview of Marine Casualties and Incidents (2025)