LONDON: “Seafarers: at the core of shipping’s future” has been selected as the World Maritime theme for 2021, reflecting a clear need to raise awareness of seafarers’ vital role in world trade and increase their visibility.

The focus on seafarers comes as the COVID-19 pandemic has placed extraordinary and unprecedented demands on seafarers. Hundreds of thousands faced and are still facing extended sea times, going months at sea without seeing families and loved ones. The crew change crisis in 2020 has highlighted seafarers? exceptional contribution as key and essential workers, on the front line of delivering world trade through a pandemic and in ordinary times.

The IMO Council, meeting for its thirty-second extraordinary session held by correspondence, endorsed the theme following a proposal by IMO Secretary-General Kitack Lim.

The theme will provide flexibility to the Secretariat, Member States and NGOs in consultative status to focus on seafarers as the people at the heart of shipping, while also allowing for activities to delve into specific topics relevant to the role of the seafarer in safety, maritime security, environmental protection and seafarers? well-being; and the future of seafaring against a backdrop of increased digitalization and automation.

Mr. Lim said that the COVID-19 pandemic has illustrated, more than ever, that it is crucially important to ensure the functioning of the global supply chains and the facilitation of the safe and efficient operation of maritime transport. “Through these difficult times, the international community has seen how the ability for shipping services and seafarers to deliver vital goods, including medical supplies and food, has been central to responding to, and eventually overcoming, this pandemic. This could not happen without the professionalism and dedication of the world’s seafarers,” Mr. Lim said.

2021 World Maritime Day Parallel Event

Following the postponement of the 2020 Parallel event, due to the pandemic, the 2021 World Maritime Day Parallel Event will be held in South Africa.

Celebration of 2020 World Maritime Day

The 2020 World Maritime Day will be celebrated on 24 September 2020, with an online event organized by the IMO Secretariat.