Reported marine casualties and incidents involving ships flying an EU flag or within EU waters fell in 2022, the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) says.

Its annual overview says 2022 was “a positive year in terms of the reduction or stabilisation of many accident indicators, such as the number of occurrences, ships lost, fatalities or injuries”.

EMSA says that a total of 2,510 marine casualties and incidents were reported last year, representing a reduction of 182 marine casualties and incidents in comparison with the year 2021 and 84 marine casualties and incidents in comparison with the year 2020.

“Overall, the total number of marine casualties and incidents reported from 2014 to 2022 was 23,814 with an annual average of 2,646,” it says.

“The number of casualties and incidents in 2022 is 5.1% under the annual average and the average of 2,670 occurrences before the pandemic,” it says.

“Moreover, after a peak of 106 very serious casualties reported in 2018 and a total of 75 in 2019, the number of very serious marine casualties was 51 in 2020, 58 in 2021 and 44 in 2022, confirming the reduction in the trend,” it states.

There were 2,701 ships involved in marine casualties last year, a decrease of 212 in 2021.

“This decreasing trend applies to cargo ships and fishing vessels,” it says.

The EMSA overview presents statistics on marine casualties and incidents which involved ships flying the flag of one of the EU member states, which occurred within EU member states’ territorial sea or internal waters as defined in UNCLOS, or which involved substantial interests of EU member states.

The statistics are drawn from reports by member states to the EU database for maritime incidents, the European Marine Casualty Information Platform.