About the report
Each year, vessel owners, operators and crew report marine incidents to AMSA. We analyse this data to understand the safety risks affecting domestic commercial vessels (DCVs), regulated Australian vessels (RAVs) and foreign-flagged vessels operating in Australian waters.
The Marine Incident Annual Report 2024 presents key findings from the past year and identifies trends over the last 5 years, including common incident types, their impacts, and some of the contributing safety factors. These insights directly inform the development of AMSA’s 2025–26 National Compliance Plan, our targeted strategy to improve vessel safety across the sector.
In 2024
- 5,625 marine incidents reported (up 2.8% from 2023).
- Larger DCVs (12 m and over) made up nearly 70% of marine incident reports, despite comprising only 20.6% of the DCV fleet. Bulk carriers accounted for the most marine incidents among foreign-flagged vessels.
- 5 fatalities were reported across all vessel types.
- Over 500 reported injuries with 157 of these serious.
- Most serious crew injuries were linked to navigation (DCVs) or maintenance and cargo handling (RAVs/foreign-flagged vessels).
- Collisions, groundings, and propulsion or system failures were the most common marine incident types with engineering system failures rising across all vessel types.
- Person overboard incidents on DCVs dropped by 12.9%.
- Common contributing factors included poor lookout, equipment failures, and gaps in risk assessments or risk management procedures.
Read the full report
Access the full data and findings from 2024 to help improve safety and reduce risks.
Download the Marine Incident Annual Report 2024
Related content
