THE LATEST quarterly figures from the Seafarers Happiness Index show a break in a positive trend seen throughout 2024. A drop from 7.16 in Q3 to 6.91 in Q4 marks the first decline of the year.
Crewmembers participating in the ongoing survey, an initiative of Mission to Seafarers, gave lower ratings across the board to aspects of life at sea, such as workload, connectivity, food quality and access to welfare facilities.
The report identified a notable decline in satisfaction with shore leave in the fourth quarter of 2024, the results likely pointing to increasing frustrations over access to shore leave and limited opportunities during port calls.
“The challenges surrounding shore leave remain,” the authors said.
“We heard from seafarers expressing frustration over limited opportunities to go ashore. They also discussed tight schedules and operational constraints.
“Particularly significant in this quarter were responses critical about the ports themselves. It has been common to hear criticisms levelled at shipping companies, or even individual masters and chief engineers, but increasingly ports are being seen as barriers to getting ashore.
“Ports and some people working within them, it seems, are adding to feelings of isolation and dissatisfaction among crew members. There is a growing perception that if a port isn’t actively supporting shore access, it may unintentionally hinder it—an issue that seafarers are becoming increasingly vocal about.”
The report also highlighted problems around training, which did not decrease to the extent shore leave did but gave the authors insight into some “significant issues”.
While many participating seafarers appreciated the quality of the instruction received, there was widespread concern that the volume of training was excessive and disruptive to rest during time at sea, or family time when ashore.
“Junior personnel, in particular, noted a lack of hands-on experience, feeling that online training formats were insufficiently engaging and did not adequately prepare them for real-world applications,” report authors said.
“This situation appears to have led to increased fatigue and frustration, further contributing to the decline in overall satisfaction.”
The Seafarers Happiness Index also flagged connectivity as a challenging area, with data allowances on most vessels deemed sufficient for personal use, but supporting infrastructure varying greatly between ships.
“Repeatedly, it was reported that free allowances are being granted, but the vessel’s bandwidth is insufficient to deliver on these promises, leading to growing frustration,” the report said.
“While increasingly generous offers of free access are made, the reality is that they cannot be fulfilled. This situation resembles what might be termed ‘Schrödinger’s Connectivity’, where good, free Wi-Fi exists – until you try to use it.”
Stagnant and slow rising wages were also highlighted as an issue in Q4, with satisfaction also decreasing in areas of general happiness, food quality, health and fitness, workload and access to welfare facilities.
Crew interaction also experienced a decrease in satisfaction; however, it scored the highest out of all 10 categories in Q4, at 7.6 out of a possible 10.
