The Neptune Declaration's assessment of seafarer wellbeing has shown a slight improvement in the last month as vaccine rates increase.
According to its latest figures, over the last month, the percentage of crew working beyond their contracted period of employment has decreased from 7.9% to 7.1%. The percentage of seafarers onboard for more than 11 months remains static at 1%.
The biggest gains are in seafarer vaccinations, which have increased from 31% of crew to 41%.
However, the preventative measures of some countries to stop the spread of Covid-19 have been strengthened in the last month, particularly in China.
This had led to increased flight cancellations and isolation requirements for crew. The Chinese government is now requiring its national seafarers isolate after they sign off, and again prior to repatriation.
"It is positive to see the numbers are slowly improving and there has been good progress with seafarer vaccinations," said Kasper Sogaard, managing director and head of institutional strategy and development at the Global Maritime Forum (GMF).
"Nevertheless, the numbers hide the persistent difficulties of global crew changes in repatriating crew and onboarding seafarers, which is likely to continue."
The Neptune Declaration's figures are based on aggregated data from the 10 leading ship managers representing 90,000 seafarers.
The Neptune Declaration, which operates under the GMF, is comprised of 850 companies and organisations that have committed to addressing the welfare issues for seafarers caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The global travel and quarantine restrictions put in place to stop the spread of coronavirus forced hundreds of thousands of seafarers to continue to work at sea beyond their contracted period of employment.
