(www.MaritimeCyprus.com) The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) systematically collects, categorizes, and evaluates transportation occurrence data during its official investigations, leveraging these empirical insights to uncover underlying safety deficiencies and mitigate emerging hazards across the Canadian marine transportation network. This statistical overview highlights key metrics—encompassing accident frequencies, operational incidents, and casualty figures—as structured within the accompanying data tables. While providing essential operational context and preliminary observations, this overview is deliberately descriptive rather than exhaustive, leaving deep causal analysis to individual investigation reports; accordingly, all cited averages and percentages have been rounded for clarity.
Crucially, the empirical insights and safety intelligence synthesized within this summary serve a vital function beyond regulatory reporting. For key industry stakeholders—specifically vessel owners, operational managers, and ship captains—these statistics provide actionable benchmarking data and strategic foresight. By offering a detailed account of recurring failure modes, environmental risk factors, and operational vulnerabilities across the fleet, this information equips vessel leadership to:
Enhance Safety Management Systems (SMS): Integrate historical occurrence data directly into risk assessments to proactively audit onboard procedures.
Target Operational Training: Tailor bridge-resource and crew safety training to address real-world, high-frequency maritime hazards.
Fortify Risk Mitigation Strategies: Identify systemic trends early, enabling fleet managers and captains to implement preventative controls before safety margins are compromised.
The Canada TSB received 990 reports of marine transportation occurrences in 2025 (257 accidents and 733 incidents), including 6 fatalities.
The total of 257 marine transportation accidents represents an increase from the 213 accidents in 2024 but is 4% below the 10-year average of 267. In 2025, 85% were shipping accidents (when a ship, for example, sinks, founders, or capsizes), slightly more than 83% on average over the previous 10 years. The remaining 15% of accidents in 2025 were aboard ship (when a person is seriously or fatally injured, for example, when boarding a ship or by falling overboard), just below the 10-year annual average of 17%.
According to information provided by Transport Canada, marine activity for Canadian commercial non-fishing vessels over 15 gross tons (GT) was 23 732 thousand commercial vessel-km in 2025, which is 11% above the 2015–2024 average. This yields a rate of 3.1 shipping accidents per million commercial vessel-km in 2025, lower than the prior 10-year average of 3.3.
The 6 marine transportation fatalities represent a 50% reduction from the 2024 total of 12 and a reduction from the 10-year average of 15. Of the 6 fatalities, 3 involved shipping accidents, below the average of 9 per year. As in previous years, many of the fatalities (3 of the 6) were related to commercial fishing (Canadian-flag vessels in Canadian waters). Due to this continuing trend, commercial fishing safety remains a key safety issue on the TSB’s Watchlist.
The 733 marine transportation incidents reported to the TSB in 2025 represents a 1% decrease from 2024 and is 13% below the 10-year average of 842. As in previous years, most reportable incidents (82%) were related to the total failure of machinery or technical systems.
Accidents
Overview of accidents and casualties
In 2025, 257 marine accidents were reported to the TSB, a higher number compared to the 2024 total of 213 but below the 10-year (2015 to 2024) average of 267.
In 2025, the proportion of shipping accidents (as opposed to accidents aboard ship) was 85% of all marine accidents, slightly higher than the previous 10-year average proportion (83%).
There were 218 shipping accidents in 2025, which is more than the 2024 total of 183 but slightly less (2%) than the 2015 to 2024 average of 222.
Fishing vessels were involved in 31% of all shipping accidents, which is the highest proportion among vessel types, followed by solid cargo vessels, involved in 23% of shipping accidents.
For more details and statistics, click below to download the full 2025 report:
Source: Canada Transportation Safety Board (TSB)
For more articles on Marine Accidents, click here.
