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Inmarsat's new maritime safety data platform combines GMDSS emergency data and weather data to offer a unique perspective on maritime risk.
An analysis combines three years of GMDSS distress call data with nearly 107,000 maritime safety broadcasts, revealing how extreme weather conditions, operational pressures, and geopolitical disruptions influence risk at sea.
The Viasat company leveraged a unique dataset combining three years of GMDSS information with a pioneering industry analysis of 106,975 maritime safety broadcasts made in 2025. The new platform offers unprecedented visibility into the conditions influencing maritime risk.
The entity indicated that it goes beyond simply reporting individual incidents to identify patterns, trends, and the changing impact of environmental hazards, operational pressures, and geopolitical instability on maritime safety.
Analysis of the 106,975 maritime safety broadcasts revealed that weather conditions accounted for 84.6% of all urgent messages, and storms constituted 75% of the identified meteorological hazards.
By linking safety broadcasts with distress calls, the study identified several cases where distress calls originated from areas where a weather alert had been issued. This underscores the importance of safety broadcasts in helping vessels anticipate weather hazards and, therefore, avoid having to make distress calls.
Inmarsat's findings, conducted in collaboration with data analysts from supply chain consultancy SeaFocus, are particularly significant given that shipping faces increasing exposure to extreme weather conditions, longer voyages, constantly evolving trade routes, and growing operational complexity.
While weather alerts cannot be interpreted as the cause of maritime incidents, the analysis demonstrates a clear temporal relationship between weather hazards and periods of elevated operational risk.
John Dodd, Director of Maritime Safety at Inmarsat Maritime, commented, "By combining weather information with emergency data, the Inmarsat Maritime Safety Data Centre introduces a powerful new layer of maritime intelligence. The unique insights offered by this research will help the industry better understand the factors influencing maritime safety and move from simply reacting to incidents to analyzing the conditions, patterns, and emerging risks surrounding them."
"The value of maritime safety information lies in giving vessels and shipping operators the necessary time to make informed decisions. Whether the threat comes from extreme weather conditions or geopolitical instability, early information allows crews to act to protect lives, vessels, and cargo," Dodd added.
Inmarsat received a similar number of GMDSS calls in 2025 (741) as in 2023 (788) and 2024 (801), with the three-year trend remaining generally consistent with historical averages. Each of these GMDSS alerts has a direct link to maritime safety and lives at sea, reiterating the importance of safety services.
In 2025, ongoing disruptions in the Red Sea, sanctions affecting tanker operations globally, and increased tensions around the Persian Gulf and the Black Sea altered traditional shipping routes and increased operational complexity. Electronic interference also became a significant threat to commercial shipping, as GPS spoofing, signal jamming, and other navigation disruptions increased in strategically important trade corridors, especially in the Middle East.
As in the previous two years, tanker vessels made the highest number of GMDSS calls (203), almost double that of bulk carriers, which ranked second (105). Along with traditional concerns such as weather, machinery failures, and navigation incidents, the tanker segment faced an evolving threat landscape characterized by sanction regimes, electronic interference, and the rise of parallel fleets operating outside established regulatory frameworks.
Container ships, responsible for the fifth-highest number of distress calls among different vessel types (54), were also subject to GPS spoofing. Additionally, to avoid the risk of physical attacks in the Red Sea, major shipping companies diverted their vessels around the Cape of Good Hope, adding up to two weeks to voyages and consequently increasing fuel consumption, crew workload, and vessel exposure.
The Interactive Maritime Safety Centre makes all this information directly accessible to key industry stakeholders. Users can explore trends, investigate factors influencing maritime safety, filter data by vessel type, region, and incident category, and download the most relevant information for them.
