Marine Pilots Research Articles

Unveiling nuances in data analysis to illuminate marine pilot strain.

Maritime studies, encompassing a range of disciplines, increasingly rely on advanced data analytics, particularly in the context of navigation. As technology advances, the statistical averaging of large datasets has become a critical component of these analyses. However, recent studies have highlighted discrepancies between statistical predictions and observable realities, especially in high-stress environments like port approach procedures conducted by marine pilots. This study analyzed physiological responses recorded during simulation exercises involving experienced marine pilots. The focus was not on the specific outcomes of the simulations but on the potential faults arising from conventional statistical signal processing, particularly mean-centered approaches. A large dataset of signals was generated, including one signal with a dominant characteristic intentionally designed to introduce imbalance, mimicking the uneven distribution of real-world data. Initial analysis suggested that the average physiological response of the pilots followed an S-shaped curve, indicative of a psycho-physiological reaction to stress. However, further post hoc analysis revealed that this pattern was primarily influenced by a single participant's data. This finding raises concerns about the generalizability of the S-curve as a typical stress response in maritime pilots. The results underscore the limitations of relying solely on conventional statistical methods, such as mean-centered approaches, in interpreting complex datasets. The study calls into question the validity of standardizing data interpretations based on dominant characteristic curves, particularly in environments as intricate as maritime navigation. The research highlights the need for a re-evaluation of these methods to ensure more reliable and nuanced conclusions in maritime studies. This study contributes to the ongoing discourse on data interpretation in maritime research, emphasizing the critical need to re-assess conventional statistical signal processing techniques. By recognizing the potential pitfalls in data generalization, the study advocates for more robust analytical approaches to better capture the complexities of real-world maritime challenges.

Analysis of risk influential factors of marine pilots during the embarkation and disembarkation

Due to the complex geographical conditions within the port waters, it is necessary to take pilotage operations. The embarkation and disembarkation (E&D) of marine pilots is the riskiest phase of pilotage work, with accidents occurring frequently. In order to examine the key Risk Influential Factors (RIFs) of E&D accident of marine pilots, in this study, a novel complex network model of RIFs of marine pilots during the E&D process is proposed. Firstly, based on the E&D accident investigation report of marine pilots, the causal chain of E&D accidents is extracted, and the RIFs leading to E&D accidents are identified. Secondly, a complex network model of RIFs of marine pilots during the E&D is constructed based on the complex networks theory, and the network reliability is verified. Finally, by comprehensive use of topology characteristics analysis, robustness analysis and module analysis, the key RIFs of pilot E&D accidents are identified. The research results show that pilot and management factors have important impact on pilot safety, ‘insufficient pilot ladder strength' is the most critical RIF. It should be focused on RIFs with high connectivity between modules and within modules, and the risk evolution can be blocked through the control of those RIFs. Abbreviations: BNs: Bayesian Networks; CDM: Critical Decision Method; DEMATEL: Decision-making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory; E&D: Embarkation and Disembarkation; FSA: Formal Safety Assessment; RIFs: Risk Influential Factors; RPD: Recognition-Primed Decision; SHERPA: Systematic Human Error Reduction and Prediction Approach; SOLAS: International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea; VTS: Vessel Traffic Services; TECHR: Technique for Early Consideration of Human Reliability.

Marine pilots and the choreographic work of seaport mobilities

Research on cargomobilities has emphasised containerisation, algorithmic management, and the cost-driven calculus of logistics firms. Less visible is the necessary human labour that coordinates cargomobilities in challenging environments—for example, those workers who manoeuvre ships at seaports. In response, we take to the water to learn how ports function as spaces of everyday mobilities work. We follow a day in the working life of marine pilots—a specialist, locally-based workforce who board foreign-flagged ships to dock them safely. Their labour process is, we argue, a form of choreography: executing motions in correspondence with other workers, infrastructures, vessels, and environmental forces. Increasingly volatile oceanic conditions require technical knowledge of ships and guiding equipment, plus deep place-based knowledge of port idiosyncrasies and responsiveness to elemental forces—working with rather than against swell and wind, tides, channels, and weather. While global shipping becomes ever more cutthroat in pursuit of efficiencies, marine pilots choreograph mobilities with respect for earthly forces and the bulk and power of ships and seas, and thus perform the necessary infrastructural labour that offsets risk. Amidst worsening environmental hazards, we offer choreography as an analytical frame to centre the work, workers, collaboration, and more-than-human interactions underpinning mobilities.

Bibliometric and Qualitative Analysis of Workload Studies in the Maritime Sector

Maritime traffic is a socio-technical system that requires the collaboration of many elements such as stakeholders, equipment, environment, and technology. The workload for stakeholders in marine traffic has increased due to the growing number of monitored ships in coastal areas, as well as the variety and amount of operations. This study aims to conduct a comprehensive analysis of workload studies conducted in the maritime domain, encompassing all stakeholders. In doing so, the goal is to reveal changes over the years, identify collaborative areas, and enhance the understanding of the concept. The Scopus and Web of Science (WoS) databases were used as the data collection tool. A search was conducted with keywords associated with the concept of 'workload in maritime,' leading to the analysis of 372 relevant documents. VOSviewer Bibliometric Data Analysis Tool and MAXQDA Analytics Pro 22 Software were employed in the analyses. After the data from the two databases were combined, it was found that the authors with the most publications (P) and citations (C) in this field are Murai K. (P-41; C-200), Hayashi Y. (P-30; C-196), and Okazaki T. (P-15; C-82). With 56 publications, Japan is in first place, followed by the US (39), China (35), and the UK (27). Additionally, Japan and the US are two countries in collaboration. Among the commonly used terms in this research are mental workload, vessel, safety, performance, human factors, tiredness, simulator, and physiological measuring techniques including heart rate, nasal temperature, EEG, and salivary amylase. In workload studies, psychosocial variables were most prominently expressed in 2021. While the analysis of workload studies indicates a focus on “mental workload” studies involving Vessel Traffic Services Operators (VTSOs), research related to seafarers, cadets, marine pilots, and ship masters is seen to dominate this field which is “bridge team”.

The Place-based Work of Global Circulation: Maritime Workers, Collaboration, and Labor Agency at the Seaport

How does place influence the work of global circulation, and how might that work enroll hitherto overlooked modes of collaboration, power, and agency? Geographers recentering labor in analyses of global production and circulation emphasize the labor–capital relation and employer control versus employee resistance. This can limit empirical and political prospects. Instead, we foreground two additional relationships: collaborative relationships of trust between workers across roles and organizations who coordinate circulation together; and relations between workers and place that unfold as tasks are completed amid challenging oceanic and climatic forces. Such relationships are forged by the need to collaborate and provide the foundation for transverse exercises of labor agency. To illustrate, we take to the water with maritime workers (marine pilots, tugboat operators, and liners), observing how shipping circulation is maintained. Seaports are idiosyncratic places—gateways and chokepoints for global circulation experiencing oceanic and atmospheric extremes. Coordination problems are pervasive. Disruption risks require maritime workers to collaborate in place to ensure circulation occurs through place. Demonstrating how the ocean's lateral forces mediate circulation, we emphasize three features of an on-water, place-based labor process: (1) choreographed coordination, (2) situational awareness, and (3) combined multidimensional skills. Navigating a labor process conditioned by the sea, port workers collaborate to manage risks and maintain circulation. In so doing, they also preside over risk and circulation. We argue for collaborative relationships and transverse expressions of agency to feature more prominently in analyses of the diverse, place-based, and interconnected labor upon which capitalist circulation depends.

Exploring seafarers’ emotional responses to emergencies: An empirical study using a shiphandling simulator

Seafarers are required to make quick decisions to avoid accidents in case of emergencies. However, officers with anxiety generally have a high probability of making wrong decisions that threaten safety and security during the voyage. With the help of a shiphandling simulator, this study aims to investigate the emotional changes of seafarers under simulated scenarios of emergencies. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (S-TAI) scale and electrocardiograph (ECG) signal are adopted to evaluate the emotions of the participant seafarers. To classify the anxiety state of the participants, a support vector machine-based method is applied to establish an anxiety recognition model. Classification results reveal that this proposed model can effectively identify different emotions of participants based on ECG features (cross-validation accuracy: 86.0%; test accuracy: 92.3%). The experimental results show that poor visibility could cause the greatest impact on the anxiety of seafarers. In addition, navigational officers and marine pilots react differently in case of emergencies. Seafarers tend to experience more anxiety when dealing with emergency situations, while marine pilots experience more anxiety during multi-ship encounter periods. Consequently, the findings of this study aid to effectively identify the scenarios that cause anxiety emotion of different professional seafarers, providing the corresponding reference for the training of seafarers. This could help prevent catastrophic accidents that pose a threat to oceans and coasts caused by human error.

Socioeconomic Factors and Navigational Safety among Marine Pilots in Lagos Ports

Socioeconomic Factors and Navigational Safety among Marine Pilots in Lagos Ports

Navigating Toward Sustainability: Impact of Using Marine Pilots in Ports Sustainability

Navigating Toward Sustainability: Impact of Using Marine Pilots in Ports Sustainability

A safety risk assessment for ship boarding parties from fuzzy Bayesian networks perspective

ABSTRACT Many people embark and disembark on merchant ships to perform various duties while ships are moored in ports. Some units, such as marine pilots and coast guards, must board and disembark the ships while they are underway. Boarding and disembarking from ships include some dangers that could result in serious injury or even death. Regulations for pilot boarding arrangements have been developed by organizations such as IMO, ICS, and IMPA to reduce risks. At each Port State Control, Class, and P&I inspection, the condition of the pilot ladders and the accommodation ladders of the ships is inspected. The situation can be much more complicated and risky for boarding parties that have to board ships underway in extraordinary situations such as when pirates or terrorists had full control of the ship. Thus, there is a need for a model, which can identify the importance weightings for each contributing factor that is involved in boarding casualties. This study introduces a technique to identify risk factors for boarding parties through fuzzy Bayesian Networks (FBN). The findings of this research are expected to help boarding parties develop new strategies for their highly risky Opposed Boarding tasks.

Analysis of Marine-Pilot Biometric Data Recordings during Port-Approach Using a Full-Mission Simulator.

The purpose of this study is to analyse data from the marine pilots’ bio-sensor readings to determine how experience affects their biometrical response during the port approach. The experiences play a significant role in the participant’s decision-making process and correlate with the repetitions. Through the repetitions of the experimental task, the participants gain experience, which correlates with the biometrical response, e.g., heart rate, electrodermal activity, etc. After exposing the two experience-distinct groups of participants to the same simulated port-approaching task, their collected biometric data is analysed and discussed. The results show that biometrical readings of the less experienced participants typically vary compared to that of the experienced participants, who take the simulated task more seriously. The study also yields insight into the workload process, involving disturbing factors during the task.

THE SAFETY OF SHIP BERTHING OPERATIONS AT PORT DOCK – A GAP ASSESSMENT MODEL BASED ON FUZZY AHP

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the safety of ship berthing operations at port dock. Based on the features of ship’s berthing operations and the relevant literature, the safety factors (SFs) of ship berthing at port docks are first investigated. A gap assessment model based on Fuzzy AHP is then proposed to assess the perceived differences on those SFs between port marine pilots and shipmasters. Finally, the ships’ berthing operations at Kaohsiung Port in Taiwan were employed to illustrate the model’s practical application. The result may provide practical information for both marine pilots and shipmasters to improve the safety performance of ship berthing operations at port docks.

The effect of social cognition and risk tolerance on marine pilots’ safety behaviour.

ABSTRACT The safety psychology of marine pilots affects their operational pilotage behaviour. This paper aims to analyze how social cognition (i.e. attitude and perception) and personality traits (i.e. risk tolerance) of marine pilots affect their safety behaviour through Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Primary sample data is obtained by a survey from the pilots of the Shanghai port, with total of 306 collected results. The results indicate the safety behaviour of marine pilots concerning that 1) the hazardous attitude has a significant positive effect; 2) risk tolerance has an indirect influence; and 3) risk perception has both direct and indirect impacts. Based on this finding, the managerial implications for pilotage safety include that 1) the reduction of the level of hazardous attitude of marine pilots can improve the safety behaviour of marine pilots, 2) the level of risk perception can increase through psychological training and safety education, which is beneficial to comprise the possible effect of increased ability by pilot skill training on risk tolerance.

Exploring English Language Needs of Indonesian Marine Pilots: A Need Analysis and Its Implications in ESP Classrooms

Exploring English Language Needs of Indonesian Marine Pilots: A Need Analysis and Its Implications in ESP Classrooms

Active Whale Avoidance by Large Ships: Components and Constraints of a Complementary Approach to Reducing Ship Strike Risk

Lethal ship-whale collisions (‘ship strikes’) constitute a recurring threat to large cetaceans across the globe. Here we describe ‘active whale avoidance’ defined as a mariner making operational decisions to reduce the chance of a collision with a sighted whale. Development and application of a conceptual model of whale avoidance model demonstrated that any activities/operations that increase detection at larger ship-to-whale distances can increase the range of response options for the ship operator, enhancing whale avoidance because (1) the opportunities for detecting a surfacing whale are often limited, (2) the cumulative probability of detecting one of the available ‘cues’ of whale’s presence decreases with increased ship-to-whale distances, and (3) a series of steps must occur before the ship can achieve a new (risk lowering) operational state. Identified options for enhancing whale avoidance include training Lookouts to focus search efforts on a ‘Cone of Conern’, defined here as the area forward of the ship where whales are at risk of collision based on the whale and ship’s transit/swimming speed and direction of travel. Standardizing protocols for rapid communication of relevant sighting information among bridge team members can also increase avoidance by assuring information is of sufficient quality to be ‘actionable’. We also found that, for some marine pilots in Alaska, a slight change in course tends to be preferable to slowing the ship in response to a single sighted whale, owing, in part, to the substantial distance required to achieve an effective speed reduction in a safe manner. Yet, planned, temporary speed reductions in known areas of whale aggregations is commonly practiced, highlighting the value of real-time sharing of whale sighting data by mariners. Finally, development of these concepts in modules in full-mission ship simulators can be of significant value in (a) training inexperienced mariners (2) helping regulators understand the feasibility of avoidance options, and (3) identifying priority research threads. We conclude that application of active whale avoidance techniques by large ships is a feasible yet underdeveloped tool for reducing collision risk globally, and highlight the value of integrating ideas across disciplines to finding solutions to mutually desired conservation outcomes.

Развитие законодательства, регулирующего деятельность лоцманов в 1880−1890 годах

Развитие законодательства, регулирующего деятельность лоцманов в 1880−1890 годах

Measuring mental workload and physiological reactions in marine pilots: Building bridges towards redlines of performance

This paper investigates the effects of shiphandling manoeuvres on mental workload and physiological reactions in ten marine pilots. Each pilot performed four berthings in a ship simulator. Those berthings were differentiated by two factors, level of difficulty and familiarity with the port. Each berthing could also be divided into five phases, three during the execution and two resting periods, one before and one after the execution (dedicated to baseline physiological data collection). Mental workload was measured through two self assessment scales: the NASA TLX and a Likert scale. Power spectral densities on Beta bands 1 and 2 were obtained from EEG. Heart rate and heart rate variability were obtained from ECG. Pupil dilation was obtained from eye tracking. Workload levels were higher as berthings increased in difficulty level and/or the pilots completed the berthings in unfamiliar ports. Responses differed across specific phases of the berthings. Physiological responses could indirectly monitor levels of mental workload, and could be adopted in future applications to evaluate training improvements and performance. This study provides an example of an applied methodology aiming to define an upper redline of task demands in the context of marine pilotage.

The Safety of Ship Berthing Operations at Port Dock - A Gap Assessment Model Based on Fuzzy AHP

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the safety of ship berthing operation s at port dock. Based on the features of ships berthing operations and the relevant literature, the safety factors SFs ) of ship berthing at port docks are first investigated. A gap assessment model based on Fuzzy AHP is then proposed to assess the perceived differences on those SFs between port marine pilots and shipmasters. Finally, the ships berthing operations at Kaohsiung Port in Taiwan were employed to illustrate the model s practical application The result may provide practical information for both marine pilots and shipmasters to improve the safety performance of ship berthing operation s at port docks.

Analysing Istanbul Strait Maritime Pilot Capacity by Simulation Technique

Nautical services should be allocated efficiently as they have great resource costs. In this paper, the Marine Pilotage Service in the Istanbul Strait has been analysed by using Rockwell Arena Simulation Software. The purpose of the study is to find the required number of marine pilots for vessel traffic flow in the Istanbul Strait. It is evaluated thoroughly by a stochastic, dynamic, discrete simulation for safe service standards in pilotage. The result of the paper shows that discrete simulation technique is an efficient and reliable way of solving complex techno-nautical service allocation problems as proven by experts. As the discrete simulation result data shows, most other techno-nautical services can also be modelled and optimised by using similar techniques. Areas like optimisation of the number of pilots, tugs, resource allocation problems, berthing area selections and many more complex and inherently stochastic problems can be reliably solved by simulation experiments.

A Comparison of Marine Pilots' Planning and Manoeuvring Skills: Uncovering Mental Models to Assess Shiphandling and Explore Expertise

This paper introduces an assessment methodology that can underpin the objective measurement of shiphandling skills and permit comparative analysis of manoeuvring plans against their execution in a full mission bridge simulator. It was hypothesised that expert shiphandlers would have shown a strong consistency between the initial plan provided and the following execution. Ten marine pilots participated in the study. Their performance was evaluated across several variables using data gathered during the planning and objective measurements completed during the execution on a simulator. A significant capability to match execution against the plan was evidenced by the group of pilots. The mathematical analysis proposed represents an objective approach that can assure a valid and reliable assessment when applied across different contexts and needs such as: selection, training and certification of pilots, port development, optimisation of bridge procedures and improvement of equipment design.

Human Factor Modelling in the Risk Assessment of Port Manoeuvers

The documentation of human factor influence on the scenario development in maritime accidents compared with expert methods is commonly used as a basis in the process of setting up safety regulations and instructions. The new accidents and near misses show the necessity for further studies in determining the human factor influence on both risk acceptance criteria and development of risk control options for the manoeuvers in restricted waters. The paper presents the model of human error probability proposed for the assessment of ship masters and marine pilots' error decision and its influence on the risk of port manoeuvres.