Maritime Injury Law BlogHow Screen Time Is Becoming a New Maritime Fatigue Risk
We have reported before about how long shifts, overnight watches, and inadequate crew rotation can push maritime workers toward dangerous levels of exhaustion. But a newer and less obvious source of fatigue is showing up in research, and it has nothing to do with how hard someone is working. It has to do with what they are doing during the hours they should be resting.
Internet connectivity at sea has improved dramatically as low-earth-orbit satellite systems, led by Starlink Maritime, replace older geostationary satellites parked 22,000 miles up. Those older systems were slow, laggy, and often expensive as they were billed by the megabyte, so crew members had to use them sparingly. Low-earth-orbit satellites orbit just a few hundred miles up, cutting lag and adding bandwidth at a flat monthly rate. This recent technology has turned a once rationed connection into something on par with home broadband, even on smaller fishing vessels that could never have previously justified the costs.
Workers who once went weeks without contacting home can now call, text, and video chat from the middle of the ocean. Another real advantage to this new satellite technology is the ability to dependably reach help in an emergency. The trouble is that this same connectivity is creating a new and measurable safety problem: digital fatigue.
