KINGSTON, Jamaica  —  Ships capable of sailing with little or no human intervention are moving from the realm of science fiction into reality, with the maritime industry now preparing for a future in which some vessels could be operated remotely from shore.

Arsenio Dominguez, secretary-general of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), said autonomous vessels are already in service in limited forms, while the industry continues to develop regulations and training frameworks to govern their use.

Dominguez made the comments during a visit to the Caribbean Maritime University (CMU) at Palisadoes Park in Kingston on Tuesday, where he discussed the future of shipping and the skills that will be required by seafarers as technology continues to reshape the industry.

“It’s a combination. Right now, we’re looking at some vessels that are fully autonomous, others that are semi-autonomous. So for the full autonomous vessel, there’s no one on board the vessels. Then you have the semi-autonomous, which still have the human interaction when you actually operate in those vessels,” he explained.

While fully autonomous vessels remain limited and are not yet operating at scale, CMU president Professor Andrew Spencer said the emergence of the technology means the industry must begin preparing now for the seafarer of the future.

“There’s a discussion about autonomous shipping, which really just means ships that are unmanned. Nobody is actually navigating the ship as a captain. This is not happening on a large scale yet, but we need to be thinking about the seafarer of the future,” Spencer said.

According to Dominguez, the growing use of technology will not eliminate the need for maritime professionals but will change the skills they require. He also pointed to a shortage of qualified seafarers globally, creating opportunities for countries and institutions capable of producing highly trained personnel.

“So the first clarification is that there’s a shortage of qualified seafarers,” Dominguez said, adding that the projection is that “by 2030, we may be short of around 400,000 qualified seafarers to be able to operate these vessels.”

The figure, however, relates to projected retraining demands associated with the industry’s transition, including decarbonisation, and should be attributed to Dominguez rather than treated as an independently published statistic.

Spencer said Jamaica and the wider Caribbean could benefit from the demand for skilled maritime professionals, but argued that the region’s strength lies in the quality of its graduates rather than attempting to compete on numbers.

“Now, the issue is there’s a shortage of seafarers. We can’t produce the quantity that the world requires. We bring to the game a quality proposition. So whereas they can provide a critical mass, we are providing a quality output,” Spencer added.

The shift towards autonomous and technologically advanced shipping is also prompting changes in maritime education, with areas such as artificial intelligence, digitalisation, cybersecurity and environmental technologies becoming increasingly important.

The IMO has introduced a voluntary code for autonomous ships, with a binding regulatory framework expected later in the decade. The development of these rules is expected to address issues including the training of personnel and liability.

For CMU, the changes present an opportunity to prepare students for an industry that is becoming increasingly reliant on technology while maintaining the importance of human expertise.

As the global shipping industry moves towards greater automation, both Dominguez and Spencer agree that the workforce of the future is being prepared in classrooms today.