MOB – Man Overboard – they are the words no ship’s captain wants to
hear. And although safety authorities have been working on safety
measures for passengers, such as raising the height of a cruise ship’s
railings, MOB incidents happen regularly in the cruise industry.
Nearly 400 people are reported to have gone overboard between 2000 to
2020, with around 18 to 20 incidents occurring on cruise ships in an
average year.
“But because incidents continue to occur – be they accidental or out
of choice – ships need a means of quickly detecting when and where an
individual has fallen into the water,” says Mike Collier, who spent
seven years at Carnival, six of them as Carnival Corporation HESS Policy
project lead, including MOB Detection, before joining MARSS.
HESS is Carnival Corporation’s Health, Environmental, Safety and Security policy.
“The key word here is immediately. It’s rarely easy finding an
overboard individual – with challenging sea conditions, the darkness of
night (when most incidents happen) and the difficulty of changing the
direction of a ship – all adding difficulties, even if the incident is
quickly identified.
“However, on cruise ships, it can regularly be hours, not minutes, until someone raises the alarm,” Collier says.
In an attempt to offset this risk, the cruise industry is required to detect or capture images of people going overboard.
In 2020, after four years of collaboration between the cruise
industry, technology vendors, class societies and regulators, ISO 21195
was published.
This goal-based standard provided a baseline for the performance of
MOB systems. Specifically, this standard demands that acceptable man
overboard detection systems should have a minimum 95% detection
probability and generate no more than one false alarm per day.
Enter technology company MARSS with its MOBtronic automated
man-overboard system. Having completed phase 1 and 2 of the standards,
the technology is set to be tested on a vessel during the final phase
before certification.
“This is important progress, especially when change is needed now
more than ever. By leveraging highly advanced, standard-driven
technologies, the protection of vessel passengers can be hastened,
prioritised and secured for the long haul,” Collier says.
“This is what we’re currently working towards at MARSS.”