Putting humans at the centre of the blue economy.
That’s the goal of a long-standing relationship between Memorial’s Faculty of Medicine and the Marine Institute with the national Mission to Seafarers organization and its new Newfoundland and Labrador station — and a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Catalyst Grant is going a long way in supporting that goal.
Principal investigator Dr. Desai Shan, a maritime health and safety expert and an assistant professor of occupational health and safety in the Faculty of Medicine at Memorial, is the project’s principal investigator.
“By centring the lived experiences of seafarers, particularly their barriers to health-care access and healthy living, this project will address persistent health inequities and contribute to more responsive, inclusive and sustainable maritime health systems,” she said.
Seafarer support network
More than 28,000 seafarers work on Canadian-flagged vessels, with more than one-third of them coming from Atlantic Canada.
Newfoundland and Labrador’s marine sector includes cargo shipping, ferries, fisheries and a growing cruise industry, which sees approximately 50,000 seafarers visit the province annually. Despite that, the province lacked a dedicated seafarers’ welfare centre until recently.
That gap prompted a Memorial-led and funded workshop in 2023 that brought together representatives from Transport Canada, the shipping industry, the Port of St. John’s and seafarer unions. The effort helped launch Newfoundland and Labrador’s Port Welfare Committee and laid the groundwork for the province’s new seafarers’ support network, including the new station.
Practical solutions
Dr. Shan says the CHIR project will support workshops and roundtable discussions with researchers, seafarers, unions, regulators, employers and welfare organizations to continue exploring barriers to health care and well-being at sea while developing practical solutions to improve support services.
“On one hand is identifying the needs of people working at sea,” she said. “On the other hand is trying to think about interventions or models we can develop and deliver through the seafarer welfare centre.”
Canadian seafarers often work long and irregular hours, with previous research from the team showing that 80 per cent regularly work more than 60 hours per week and nearly half report experiencing sleepiness at work. They also found elevated rates of anxiety and depression among Canadian seafarers compared to the general population.
“The fact that there are human beings operating vessels is out of mind for most people.”
For the project’s partners, the work is also about increasing public awareness.
“The fact that there are human beings operating vessels is out of mind for most people,” said Rev. Judith Alltree, a former executive director of Mission to Seafarers Southern Ontario and former regional director for Mission to Seafarers Canada who still volunteers with the organization. “They think ships sail themselves. They have no concept that there are human beings on board a ship.”
Support shaped by need
For Morgane Sheppard, station manager of the Mission to Seafarers station in St. John’s, their goal is to ensure support services, like the station itself, are shaped by the people who need them.
“We’re trying to build a model that fits what the community needs, whether it’s a place to rest their head before they drive eight hours across the island, or just somewhere they can get off the boat and disconnect, grab a coffee and have a chat,” she said.
The team also includes Dr. Delphine Grynszpan, an assistant professor of public health; Dr. Rachel Prowse, an assistant professor of nutrition and dietetics, and Dr. Peter Wang, a professor of Epidemiology, all with the Faculty of Medicine; as well as Dr. Rose Ricciardelli, research chair in safety, security and wellness, Capt. Christopher Hearn, director, Centre for Marine Simulation, and Dr. Rob Brown, research scientist, all with the Marine Institute; and Rev. Eric Phinney, regional director for the Mission to Seafarers Canada Region.
They hope the project will eventually support larger national research initiatives focused on maritime health and well-being, whether seafarers are at sea, in port or at home.
“This is an example of how, through conversation and engagement, we can really make meaningful changes and impact for the community, while at the same time developing excellent scholarship,” said Dr. Shan.
