MARS (Mariners Alerting and Reporting Scheme)

MARS, the Mariners’ Alerting and Reporting Scheme, is the Nautical Institute’s confidential reporting system for accidents, near misses, and unsafe practices at sea. Run since 1992, it lets any seafarer report an incident without fear of identification or litigation, and publishes selected reports with commentary in the Institute’s Seaways journal and a searchable online database stretching back over two decades. The scheme is voluntary and international, open to merchant, naval, fishing, and pleasure users. Bridge teams and safety officers use MARS reports for lessons-learned and toolbox talks, since each anonymized case names the contributing factors that a master can check against on his own ship.