News / At least 11% of seafarer deaths are suicides, Gard finds

A statue of a mother and child awaiting the return of their seafarer husband and father in Odessa, Ukraine. Photo: Jason Row

Some 57 seafarers were recorded to have committed suicide over the past several years, making it the cause of more than one in ten crew fatalities, according to Gard data.

However, this may be an underestimate, the real number and proportion of suicides is almost certainly much higher.

“This is a worryingly high number, and we believe that the actual number could in fact be much higher due to under-reporting,” said Gard in its report.

It is by now widely understood that ...