Cruise & Ferry Review - Autumn/Winter 2021

1 0 7 FEATURE: SAFET Y AT SEA Protecting passengers and crew Rebecca Gibson explores some of the major health and safety challenges facing the passenger shipping industry, as well as some of the products and services that are helping operators to protect their ships, passengers and crew W hile incidents such as onboard fires, hull breaches, floods and major outbreaks of contagious illnesses onboard cruise ships and ferries are rare, if they do happen, they can have a significant – and potentially catastrophic – impact on the vessels, as well as the health and safety of passengers and crew members. Consequently, in the event of such an emergency, shipowners want to ensure that crew members have all the skills, knowledge, tools and technologies they need to rapidly detect and resolve operational issues to prevent them from becoming a danger to everyone onboard. In the following pages, we showcase some of the latest products and services that are helping cruise and ferry operators to improve health and safety onboard their vessels, particularly as they continue to grapple with the impact of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. We also ask Interferry’s Johan Roos how the global ferry industry is working together to overcome some of the biggest safety challenges it faces. CFR