25 June 2017: Day of the Seafarer

Day of the Seafarer is celebrated annually on 25 June. The theme for 2017 is Seafarers Matter.

The world’s seaborne trade accounts for around 90% of the global trade. Without shipping, there would be limited global trade. As of 2016, the world fleet (the number of registered commercial ships over 100 tons DWT – Dead Weight Tonnage) was 49,223 ships with 1.79 million tons of DWT.

The people that are responsible for maintaining, running, and operating the ships and tonnage are seafarers. There are an estimated 1,545,000 seafarers. Seafarers (men and women) leave their homes and families, often for long periods, to ensure that the essential items and commodities on which our lives depend, arrive safely at our homes.

Every year on 25 June the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) celebrates DAY OF THE SEAFARER (DotS) to recognize the unique contribution made by seafarers from all over the world to international seaborne trade, the world economy and civil society as a whole and to let the world know how and why ‪#SeafarersMatter and are indispensable to everyone.

DotS was established in a resolution adopted by the 2010 Diplomatic Conference in Manila.

Under the 2017 theme, #SeafarersMatter, the campaign is engaging people responsible for the world’s ports and seafarer centres to demonstrate how much seafarers matter to them by featuring great initiatives that support and promote seafarer welfare.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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