IMO set to reduce number of lives lost at sea by 50% within two years

European trade unions of seafarers have backed the appeal of IMO to reduce the number of lives lost at sea by 50% within two years, says press center of Seafarers’ Union of Russia.

When opening the meeting of the International Maritime Organization, IMO Secretary-General Koji Sekimizu marked the problem of high casualty and injury rates among seafarers, fishers and river workers.

«The number of lives lost annually at sea has been over 1,000 for each of the past five years”, An ambitious, but achievable target, would be to aim for a 50 per cent reduction, to no more than 500 lives lost annually, by 2015,” Koji Sekimizu said.

Despite the difficulty in obtaining precise and reliable data for such losses, he said that approximate figures for 2012 included approximately 100 lives lost in the fishing sector, 400 in domestic operations, and around 500 in other categories, including international shipping.