Assessment of Hazards Associated with Maritime Activities in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria
Maritime hazards potentially affect the human, the marine environment, properties, and activities aboard ships and ashore in various forms and degree of extent. The study examined various hazards associated with maritime activities in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The cross‑sectional survey research design was employed and with the aid of Taro Yamane, 350 respondents in form of onshore and offshore staff, captains, chief mates, crew members, administrative and safety officers were selected for the study. The result revealed that hazards commonly associated with maritime activities include slip and fall, poor housekeeping, fatigue, grounding, collision, fire and torpedoed. Over-reliance on the vessels technology (60.3%), attributes beyond human capacity such as bad weather and sudden storm (57.3%), technological malfunction due to ecological attributes (61.5%), inadequate function of vessel crew (55.5%), unsatisfactory organization value affecting staff mode of operation (54.6%) are the causes of maritime hazards of merchant ships/vessels. Finding indicated that the organization priorities was in the order of preventing damage to the ship and equipment (24.3%), minimizing operational cost (21.3%), and ensuring the safety of the crew (17.4%). The extent of compliance to the operational standard and safety performance was moderate while the organizational safety culture was perceived to be high in their organization. There is need for regular assessment and reassessment of safety culture as the tool to discover the organization actual level of safety culture to learn and improve.
Keywords: Maritime, Hazards, Safety, Niger Delta
