during the usual jobs aboard, for which, the number of crew members can
be substantially different from the official (criterion of needs).
It can be said that there is effective safety, when the sum of
different types of knowledge from very different origins is applied, not only from
experience, but also from analysis and planning.
With this position, the Administrations implicated in maritime
activities should foment among entrepreneurs, that all the sector, including themselves
and seafarers, not only need a specialized training applied to the general safety of the
activity, but this should also be consequent with the real needs of the moment, not being
valid by their inefficiency those that are only the fruit of the fulfillment of the
acquired obligations. One of the ways to achieve that radical and necessary change starts
from a strategy of previous positions that must constitute the safety program designed for
each ship, integrating the composition of the crew, the type of ship, her traffic and
nature of the cargo and the entrepreneurial structure of the shipowner.
The maritime activity is in a permanent evolution adaptable to the
benefits and influences that the own and outside/alien technologies exercise to increase
the safety of seamen and to improve their occupational conditions while staying on board.
The topic of safety will continue being a problem whose solutions are
shared between public and private efforts, therefore it must be thought that a strict
follow-up of the indicated aspects would represent a preventive action of wide scope, with
immediate contributions, that would complement the ones resulting from the application of
the international legislation on accident prevention. The correction of the deviations
detected in the human factor, as a fundamental cause, would provide a field of preventive
applications of a different nature, mastered by a positive character in benefit of all.
It must be recalled that the activity by itself is justified in terms
of profitability and efficiency, both of the objective and the management, that is to say,
the enforceable actions must be guided to the achievement of tangible objectives obtained
by the adequate safety level. Including both facets is not always comfortable and simple,
but always necessary.
The common strategy must consist of the harmonization of material
objetives, such as transportation, stowage, benefits, time spended, internal work,
repairs, etc., with the objectives of safety, both of the ship and her facilities and the
people that are found aboard, as well as the properties and people outside her, such as
the consideration of pollution or risks going beyond her scope caused by the ship on her
development.
The weighting and the search of balance in the created situation
continues being a set of triable aspects with an uncertain result, having more
possibilities of success when the number of variables that can be controlled is high,
always together with a good seamanship.
Being the topic handled like this, the training to impart and its
classification as minimal or standar will be consequent with reality, directed to the
weaker and needier points of the system considered, and it will be able to be applied with
the rigor that the own degree of deviation detected specifies for its alteration. The
training policy will be seconded by the sector in view of the positive and imminent
