Marine Investigations

NSW Maritime is the primary agency for investigating marine incidents in NSW. NSW Maritime conducts investigations into the causes and circumstances of a range of marine incidents, including those involving recreational and commercial vessels, ports and ships. NSW Maritime also investigates breaches of legislation such as the failure to comply with licensing or registration or illegal environmental activities.

For information on what a marine accident is and how to report a marine accident, click here.

Safety Recommendations

The outcome of an investigation may include the publication of safety recommendations, so as to prevent further incidents of the same kind from occurring, or enforcement measures such as the issue of a penalty infringement notice or court action.

For more information on recent safety recommendations resulting from NSW Maritime investigations, click here.

Other Investigations

In some cases, other agencies will also investigate maritime incidents and NSW Maritime will conduct a parallel investigation. These other agencies include:

Whereas NSW Maritime conducts investigations based on a regulatory perspective, which may result in various prosecution or enforcement actions, both OTSI and ATSB investigations are based on a ‘just culture’ or no blame perspective. In other words, these investigators seek to identify why an incident took place and make recommendations to prevent recurrence. The investigations by these agencies do not involve compliance mechanisms.

NSW Maritime regularly monitors the implementation of safety recommendations from its own investigations, as well as those made by independent transport investigators such ATSB and OTSI.

In addition, NSW Maritime continues to work with the OTSI and ATSB to develop an efficient and coordinated approach to marine transport investigations to ensure improved safety for the commercial vessel and shipping industries.