THE crewing crisis has not gone away just because ships are being laid-up. The bubble of wage inflation for senior officers with the requisite specialist training has certainly been pierced and the economic downturn might even reduce the shortfall of seagoing officers, but the underlying problems remain.
As International Maritime Organization secretary-general Efthimios Mitropoulos warned this week, recruitment and retention of crew is still a serious cause for concern.
His speeches have been littered with such warnings ever since the economic crisis began to take hold and he is not the only one raising warning flags.
With companies across the sectors currently cutting their budgets to the bone, the fear is that cuts in training and human resources are inevitably going be targeted.
Such temptations must be resisted.
Mr Mitropoulos is right to point out that quality is every bit as important as quantity and that education and training are essential recruitment tools.
Go on board any vessel and speak to the crew about their career ambitions and most honest responses will entail a job on land.
Standards of living need to be improved, solid career paths need to be established and pay rates need to be increased across the board if crew are to ever see a life at sea as anything more than temporary means to an end.
