The first seeds of the Neptune Declaration on Seafarer Wellbeing and Crew Change were planted at a virtual gathering of shipping executives in September.

The Global Maritime Forum's annual event saw Ocean Network Express (ONE) chief executive Jeremy Nixon and V.Group chairman Graham Westgarth take part in a separate discussion group on the crew-change crisis that had seen 400,000 seafarers stranded due to Covid-19 restrictions.

Nixon told TradeWinds: "The situation was pretty serious at that stage."

He added that what was surprising was that quite a lot of chief executives were coalescing around this virtual group.

"We got great people on board," Nixon said. "A coalition of the willing — owners, operators, charterers, crew agencies, unions."

Nixon added that "all these beautiful statements" were being made at the United Nations level, but at the actual level of tactical action, the industry was "hitting a lot of stickiness".

"We sat and said, 'how do we make this better?'" Nixon said.

Westgarth added that such efforts can sometimes break down at the tactical level.

"At the very high level, people get it, but it needs to funnel down," he said.

Nixon said crew changes were still seen as risky, with no clear process as to how the switches should be done to minimise the risk.

Westgarth added that everyone put aside their own agendas, and the main topic of discussion became the solving of a humanitarian crisis.

"It was very heartening to be a part of," Westgarth said.

The idea was to make the process much more straightforward and de-risk it.

The declaration has been built around the Singapore/Philippines-devised STAR Protocols, including a 14-day quarantine and testing of crews before a changeover.

"If you don't do it right upstream, you get a lot of problems," Nixon said.

Easy in Australia

"We've had hundreds of Filipino crew coming into Australia over the last six to eight weeks, without one problem," he said.

Crew crisis in numbers

Seafarer population: 1.65m

Officers: 774,000

Ratings: 873,500

Biggest crew providers: China, Philippines, Indonesia, Russia and Ukraine

Rotations per month usually: 100,000

Crew stranded on ships at height of pandemic: 400,000

Number unable to board: 400,000

"We need the power and strength of all these big companies to say this is important, to say if we don't do this we're going to run out of crew and the industry is going to get a bad reputation."

Nixon added: "Global trade will be at risk. It's going to be even worse now with the new variants."

The plan is to gain critical mass and take the measures to governments.

"We're shining a light, saying this is the way to do it," Nixon said.

Westgarth added that more members will sign up in the coming weeks.

Impact is inevitable

He does not believe the new lockdowns have had an impact on V.Group yet.

But he added: "I think it's inevitable that it will. We need to continue to lobby governments. The more people sign up, the easier it becomes."

Westgarth believes this is not just a shipping issue, but a problem for the global supply chain.

Nixon added: "We are concerned this will go to the lowest common denominator of just blocking and stopping again."

He argued that seafarers are key workers who are putting their lives at risk and so need to get priority for the Covid-19 vaccine.

"We need to make sure in the next six to eight weeks we get that priority," Nixon said. "There are 46 countries signed up at the UN level saying these are key workers. They're listening to the discussion about priority."

Step change needed

But Westgarth cautioned that those governments have not yet made it a priority to provide vaccines to seafarers.

Nixon also warned the problem is not going away and may get worse in the next three or four months.

"We can't approach it piecemeal, we have to come together collectively," Nixon said.

He believes there can be no shortcuts, even if it costs everyone a little more money. The alternative is more vessels being delayed.

"We know how to do this," Nixon argued. "We just need government and port authorities to recognise the key role of the seafarers and allow us to put these STAR Protocols in place."