India-based MarinePALS asserts that many cold weather practices in the shipping industry still fail to reflect the realities crews face onboard. In response, the maritime training provider has released a six-part training series to help address the inconsistent guidance given to seafarers.
“The industry must urgently confront the mismatch between paperwork and practice. Many cold weather procedures still assume ideal conditions, yet crews are working in near-zero visibility, high winds and restricted mobility,” said Capt. Pradeep Chawla, ceo of MarinePALS. “That disconnect exposes them to unnecessary risk. We need to ask ourselves why guidance continues to overlook the realities seafarers face on deck and what must change to make it genuinely fit for purpose.”
Chawla explained that cold weather procedures usually depend on the expertise of the company office, whereby staff with limited experience of extreme climate operations can lead to guidance be incomplete or impractical – particularly when a vessel and crew with no history in cold regions are sent on a single voyage, with only generic directives.
He added: “Cold weather affects human performance as much as equipment. Regulations require protective clothing yet give little clarity on the quality needed for true protection. This leaves crews exposed to long shifts wearing inadequate gear. The wider impact on decision making, alertness and mental resilience is still not properly recognised.”
Emphasising that training alone cannot fix systemic flaws, MarinePALS’ video series brings dissipated regulatory and loss prevention material into a six-part series of microlearning videos.
