The All-Aboard Alliance, a coalition of companies and organisations committed to improving life at sea, has launched a project to develop a global framework to help companies better identify, prevent, and respond to unwanted sexual behaviour aboard vessels. According to the alliance, there is strong evidence that sexual misconduct at sea is both widespread and significantly underreported. A 2025 report found that 80% of seafarers surveyed had experienced or witnessed a sexual offence at sea within the last five years alone. This new initiative, called Unspoken, will gather stories from seafarers about their personal experiences with sexual misconduct at sea. These stories will then inform the development of the industry’s first consistent, global framework to help companies better assess the severity of incidents and respond proportionately. “Improving conditions for our seafaring teams means needing to confront some of the uncomfortable truths about the realities of life at sea. In doing so, we are working towards making the maritime sector a more attractive career path. With Unspoken, we have a strong opportunity for a promising framework that the industry, and most importantly, seafarers, will benefit from,” said Mikael Skov, CEO of Hafnia and All Aboard Alliance co-chair. Through Unspoken, seafarers can anonymously share parts or all their personal stories, some of which will then be published on the website to showcase the scale of the issue and challenge the silence that often surrounds it. The data collected will help the alliance better understand different forms of misconduct, how incidents are assessed and responded to, and how prevention measures can be strengthened. The alliance also stated that the Unspoken website was not a reporting platform, a whistleblower, or an emergency service. Stories posted on the site will undergo review and approval before publishing. No graphic content or company-level attribution will be published. Also, no personally identifiable information is collected during submission. All stories will be anonymised, then aggregated and analysed collectively. Seafarers often find themselves also victims of bullying and harassment. To counter that, the International Maritime Organization launched an interactive world map in June last year, which highlights reporting channels, national policies, and support systems by flag state. This tool was designed to empower seafarers to access help, wherever they are in the world, and to promote transparency in the maritime response to harassment. Back in 2024, a report published by a Global Maritime Forum initiative, Diversity@Sea, noted findings from Nautilus that claimed that almost 42% of maritime workers have encountered bullying, harassment, or discrimination at sea, while Safer Waves reports that 58% have experienced sexual misconduct at sea. Estimates in the report indicate that 8% to 25% of all seafarers experience harassment and bullying. For female seafarers, the figure exceeds 50%. In the first quarter of 2023 alone, the International Seafarers’ Welfare and Assistance Network reported a 45% increase in cases of harassment and bullying compared to the previous quarter, with many incidents involving abuse by senior officers. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1_95_0_1_2'); });