Maritime News

Despite decades of awareness campaigns, regulatory updates, and repeated industry commitments, seafarers and shore workers continue to lose their lives in enclosed spaces on board ships, often in circumstances that were entirely preventable.

This Safety Alert is issued by the Bahamas Maritime Authority to raise awareness of the serious hazards associated with Hydrogen Sulphide (H₂S). It also highlights the requirement for risk assessment and precautions to be in place prior to opening any enclosed space that may contain this, or any other, toxic gas. It is based on the preliminary findings of a marine safety investigation, the second very serious marine casualty involving hydrogen sulphide that The Bahamas fleet suffered in 2025.

The Japan Transport Safety Board has published report MA2025-4 into a fatal incident which occurred in May 2024 on a bulk carrier moored at a port in Japan.

DNV has recently identified cases where CO₂ fire extinguishing systems had multiple depleted CO₂ cylinders, potentially compromising fire safety and vessel integrity. More about this below.

On December 5, 2024, a 577-foot, foreign-flagged, vehicle carrier allided with a facility terminal while attempting to moor during inclement wind conditions. The incident resulted in structural damage to both the facility’s infrastructure and the vessel’s hull that exceeded $1,000,000.