World Maritime Day is conducted every year on 30th September and it is celebrated in different ways globally. Check everything about World Maritime Day here.
World Maritime Day History
World Maritime Day is conducted every year by the United Nations (UN), the founder, collectively with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) whose main aim is to showcase the contributions of the maritime members in maintaining the world’s economy.
The maritime industry is responsible for the transportation of goods internationally and without their transportation the world’s economy would be unstable. World Maritime Day is celebrated in order to address the same and make the world aware of the importance of this industry.
The first World Maritime Day was celebrated on March 17, 1978, on IMO’s 20th anniversary. The IMO is now a group of 167 member states, expanding from its original group of 21 member states.
This year, the event is going to be held on September 30 globally.
How is World Maritime Day Celebrated
World Maritime Day is celebrated in different ways globally. In India, an awards ceremony is held to honor the hard work of the members of the Indian Maritime in the past 12 months.
In other countries, the members also conduct fundraising events or organize a coffee morning.
This year, a live webinar will be hosted by IMO at 12 BST to raise awareness among people towards the challenging year that the seafarers had to face recently. Secretary-General Kitack Lim, along with four seafarers will be addressing the audience about diversity, crew change, safety, and the environment.
On the occasion of World Maritime Day, the IMO headquarters will be lit blue, including the IMO building and the seafarer memorial. The members have also extended their interest in social media participation via Twitter by using the hashtag #worldmaritimeday and also sharing images over to [email protected].
World Maritime Day Theme
This year’s theme is “Seafarers: At the core of shipping’s future”. As the theme suggests, the main focus is on highlighting the importance of the contributions that the seafarers put in to keep the global economy working.
World Maritime Day theme of 2021 is also working towards sustainable development goals of the UN and is linked in continuation with last year’s theme of “Sustainable shipping for a Sustainable planet”.
The World Maritime Theme Logo is available in Jpeg format and RGB colors engraved with six official languages
Problems Faced by Seafarers Due to Covid-19
The significance of World Maritime Day has grown all the more this time as the deadly pandemic has left the seafarers with many challenges like international travel restrictions, change of crew, and shore leave limitations. The way that seafarers were left stranded for months and the way that others couldn’t join back and earn their living were among the difficulties that they had to face for over a year.
This year’s event will address the same issues that the seafarers are still affected by globally and highlight how the seafarers are actually at the core of shipping’s future during this global crisis.
Secretary-General Kitack Lim’s official launch of theme 2021
Addressing the world, Secretary-General Kitack Lim launched the World Maritime Day theme 2021, speaking of the ‘humanitarian crisis that is threatening global trade and safe navigation. He wrote about the need for safety and security of the seafarers on board and requested all the governments to come up and take a stand for the ongoing issue and asked the countries to designate all the seafarers as ‘keyworkers’, which he said is ‘crucial to ensure prioritization of vaccination’.
