Day of the Seafarer celebrates the vital role seafarers play in keeping the world’s economy afloat and protecting the marine environment. Read more from Captain Raghav Gulati, our Safety and Technical Operations Manager.
June 25 marks Day of the Seafarer, a United Nations observance day that reminds us of the vital role the maritime industry, and the 1.9 million seafarers it employs, play in keeping the world’s economy afloat.
This year’s theme – #OceansWorthProtecting – recognises the important contribution these highly skilled professionals also make to protect our marine environment.
Captain Raghav Gulati, Safety and Technical Operations Manager within Anglo American’s Shipping team, is one such individual. Growing up in India and motivated by the prospect of travelling the world while building a rewarding and action-packed career, he embarked on the path to becoming a seafarer in 2000.
In the fifteen years that followed, Capt Raghav gained the necessary practical experience and qualifications required to progress his career, becoming Master of a seagoing commercial vessel where he oversaw operations, maintenance, surveys and inspections, and security.
In 2015, Capt Raghav moved shoreside, and into the world of technical and commercial management. Today, he brings more than 20 years’ experience of the maritime value chain in support of Anglo American’s pursuit of carbon neutrality across our controlled ocean freight activities, and through his participation in industry-wide efforts to drive the sector’s decarbonisation more broadly.
As we celebrate 2023 Day of the Seafarer, Capt Raghav shared his thoughts on the changes he’s seen during his career and the vital role seafarers play in driving a more sustainable future.
As the maritime sector works towards making shipping more environmentally sound and sustainable, what is the role for seafarers?
The theme of this year’s Day of the Seafarer focuses on the contribution the seafaring community makes when it comes to protecting our marine environment, and rightly so. They spend a great deal of time at sea and see first-hand how important these efforts are.
The most beautiful part of the world I visited, on two occasions as a seafarer, was the Svalbard archipelago of Norway, near the North Pole. It is full of glaciers which, year-on-year, are losing ice due to global warming. Not many people witness such things, but seafarers are exposed to a much wider view of the world.
The heart of any ship is its crew. Without them, a vessel cannot operate. Whatever we do on shore – the strategies that industry leaders from across the different verticals want to discuss and create from a sustainability standpoint – must be executed on the ship itself or via the supporting infrastructure. Which means seafarers’ contribution and understanding is key.
When we talk about future fuels like ammonia, for example, we can talk about the safety aspects, we can work on the designs and on the theories. Ultimately, however, the people on the frontline are the seafarers, which means they are an integral component of the work we are doing, and in making sure our goals are achieved and ambitions met.
Why is it so important to recognise the role seafarers play in society?
As a seafarer myself, it’s heart-warming to see a day dedicated to this community, and the swathes of appreciation coming from people around the world, particularly at an industry level. Seafarers undertake physically and mentally demanding work, and taking time to recognise them as a critical component of our global economy is a must.
Because shipping is such a well-oiled machine, it can be easily forgotten. There are occasions when the sector’s role is brought into sharp focus – such as when a bulk carrier ran aground in the Suez Canal a couple of years ago. Once resolved, however, such instances tend to be quickly forgotten.
That is why Day of the Seafarer matters, because raising awareness about a community that typically isn’t at the forefront of people’s minds will help us drive change for the better, and safeguard the industry’s ability to attract and retain a workforce for the future.
The industry has evolved significantly in the past 20 years. What is the biggest change you’ve witnessed?
Aside from the positive developments we have seen in the regulation of safety standards and associated performance improvements, one of the biggest changes emerging today is in how the industry operates. Specifically, the need to shape a fairer and more sustainable industry, and breaking down barriers, with organisations working more closely together than ever before.
One example – part of a suite of complementary decarbonisation measures we are leaning on at Anglo American and an area in which we have taken the lead as a founding signatory – is the Sea Cargo Charter. This global framework sets a baseline and target for the decarbonisation trajectory, which enables chartering decisions to be made with a clear assessment of implications for the climate. By collaborating and working on solutions together, rather than travelling in the same direction independently of one another, we can build the momentum needed to progress further, faster.
The Sea Cargo Charter’s latest Annual Disclosure Report, published in June 2023, shows that our operations remain well within the limits of the alignment trajectory set by the International Maritime Organisation and on track for us to deliver on our Anglo American ambition to decarbonise our controlled ocean freight by 2040. We will continue to make conscious decisions to improve our performance over the months ahead – such as the way we have gone about introducing LNG dual-fuelled vessels – the Ubuntu fleet – to our chartered fleet, while at the same time continuing to explore solutions for long-term decarbonisation.
This year’s Day of the Seafarer theme is focused on the environment. How important is it – from a sustainability standpoint – to ensure crew welfare also remains a key focus?
When I think of the contribution the shipping industry makes, particularly considering the hardships endured by seafarers during the Covid-19 pandemic, I can’t think of another industry like it and how those challenges might act as a deterrent in attracting future talent. As we look ahead, it is of fundamental importance that we shape a better, fairer industry that is attractive to the talent we will need to achieve our sustainability ambitions.
For example, during the pandemic, our Shipping team implemented a series of support programmes on board for seafarers, reflecting our stance on positive human rights as a critical aspect of our Sustainable Mining Plan.
As key stakeholders in the maritime value chain, we are part of the taskforce that developed the Neptune Declaration on Seafarer Wellbeing and Crew Change, and its framework of best practices for charterers. These laid the foundations for shipowners and charterers to facilitate crew changes during the pandemic, while minimising disruption to operations.
We also have a long-established partnership with The Mission to Seafarers charity and, as well as providing support for its chaplain services and station in Saldanha Bay, South Africa, we promote its annual Happiness Index across our chartered vessels – an important barometer of seafarer satisfaction with life at sea.
These are some of the areas and initiatives we have implemented as a first step, as we continue to focus our efforts on understanding where we can best make a positive impact for the future.