The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) has published its Marine Incident Annual Report 2025, revealing it had received a total of 4,174 marine incident reports along with 452 marine safety concerns.
The Report analyses marine incidents across domestic commercial vessels (DCVs), foreign-flagged vessels (FFVs) and regulated Australian vessels (RAVs), identifying trends across the entire fleet over the past five years.
Trends in reporting
In 2025, AMSA received a total of 4,174 marine incident reports from foreign-flagged vessels (FFVs), regulated Australian vessels (RAVs) and DCVs. In 2024, it had received a total of 5,639 marine incident reports.
The reduction in reported marine incidents in 2025 is primarily attributable to a change in classification introduced on 1 January 2025, under which defect reports for RAVs and FFVs are no longer captured within the marine incident reporting process. A substantial number of reports that would have been previously recorded as marine incidents were excluded in 2025, including approximately 1272 reported defect reports.
In addition to marine incident reports, AMSA receives notifications of marine safety concerns. Marine safety concerns can be reported by anyone who observes an event or practice that may endanger, or if not corrected could endanger, the safety of a commercial vessel or persons on board a commercial vessel.
In 2025, AMSA received 452 reports of marine safety concern representing a 14.7% increase on the number received in 2024 (394 reports).
In 2025:
- 4,174 marine incidents were reported including 1,229 involving DCVs.
- Passenger vessels continue to show a good reporting culture, accounting for almost half (46%) of all reported DCV incidents though comprising only 9% of the fleet.
- Larger DCVs (12m and over) made up 67% of marine incident reports, despite comprising only 21% of the DCV fleet.
- 4 fatal DCV marine incidents occurred.
- 228 injuries were reported on DCVs with 44 of these serious.
- Most serious crew injuries were linked to navigation (DCVs) or maintenance, operational access and cargo handling (RAVs/foreign-flagged vessels).
- Contact, collisions, groundings and power, propulsion or system failures continue to be the most common marine incident types across all vessel types.
- Common contributing factors include poor lookout and main engine/gearing failures.
The impact on people
Behind every marine incident is the potential for serious harm.
In 2025, DCV marine incidents resulted in 4 fatalities, 228 injuries (including 44 serious injuries), and 92 person overboard incidents. That’s a 19% increase in person overboard incidents compared to 2024.
Across RAVs and FFVs, a further 206 injuries were reported, the majority involving crew.
The most serious injuries were linked to operational activities, particularly navigation on DCVs, and maintenance, operational access and cargo handling on RAVs and FFVs.
These outcomes highlight the real-world consequences of breakdowns in safety controls, especially during everyday tasks where risks can be underestimated.
Read the full report: AMSA-marine-incident-annual-report-2025
