Mental Health, Fatigue and Training Needs Among Seafarers During the Red Sea Crisis

Global shipping carries over 80% of world trade, yet existing supply-chain-resilience theory models resilience at the level of the firm, node and network, without treating the workforce operating those nodes as a variable. This study addresses that gap using the 2023–2026 Red Sea/Houthi crisis as its empirical setting. A mixed-methods, pilot-scale design combined a 64-respondent self-report questionnaire of serving seafarers with thematic analysis of open-text responses. Seafarers exposed to Red Sea transits, Cape of Good Hope diversions, or a security incident rated STCW crisis-management training as significantly less adequate for conflict-area risk than unexposed seafarers, an effect that strengthened for incident-exposed respondents specifically. Open-text responses identified situational information and realistic scenario-based drills, rather than generic compliance training, as the specific gap, and a minority questioned seafarers' right to decline a high-risk voyage. These findings extend the conceptual framework linking geopolitical risk to operational resilience by distinguishing a training-competence pathway from a retention/psychological-contract pathway. The study contributes empirical evidence, gathered directly from an affected workforce, that the human factor is a measurable variable in geopolitical supply-chain-disruption theory, and derives practical and policy recommendations for STCW training content and seafarer consent protections.