User:Fredpike/sandbox

On ships
Fatigue on board is a still a major factor of accidents which lead to casualties, damage and pollution. Studies show that most accidents happen during the night especially around 4 am due to the Circadian rhythm of humans. Studies like Project Horizon have recently been done to analyse which factors cause this fatigue. The lack of sleep and quality of the sleep are two of the main issues. The lack of sleep is due to the long hours that the workers (especially the Officers) have to do (work weeks of 70 hours +). After that there is the quality of their sleep which is affected by lots of different factors. There will be the quality of the food on board, the vibrations due to the engine and waves, the noise of repair or works or engine, only naps (not sleeping 8 hours in a single run but 2 or 3 naps a day) because of the watch system and secondary jobs. Stress on board especially when arriving in port when all hands have to be on deck whatever the time.

With companies trying to reduce the costs there is less crew. Turn around in port have to be as fast as possible because the time spent in ports is very expensive. All of this adds work and stress to the crew on board which drains them of their energy which will lead to errors due to fatigue. The ILO have conventions for trying to restrict the maximum working hours on board and to determine the minimum rest period of seafarers. Unfortunately the maritime industry is so competitive and there are fewer and fewer a crew member on board, which makes it difficult to not work overtime otherwise the workers, will fall behind on their work load.