Taiwan, surrounded by the sea and strategically located in East Asia, possesses the unique characteristics of an island nation, granting it natural advantages in the development of maritime transport and other marine industries. The waters surrounding Taiwan are busy with maritime traffic, featuring five major ports—Kaohsiung, Taichung, Keelung, Taipei, and Hualien—alongside numerous fishing harbors and commercial vessels of various sizes, forming a dense and diverse maritime transportation network. Given this highly active maritime environment, the importance of maritime safety has become increasingly prominent.

In the past, the Maritime and Port Bureau, Ministry of Transportation and Communications was the sole authority responsible for maritime incident investigations. However, to ensure the independence and impartiality of accident investigations across aviation, railway, maritime, and highway transportation, and to enhance overall transportation safety, the Taiwan Transportation Safety Board (TTSB) was established in 2019 in accordance with the Transportation Occurrence Investigation Act and the Organization Act of the Taiwan Transportation Safety Board. Since its establishment, the TTSB has received 889 incident reports related to maritime transportation, formally investigated 209 cases, and concluded 195 cases* leading to 224 safety improvement recommendations. Additionally, 14 cases remain under investigation, with most maritime-related cases involving the Maritime and Port Bureau, focusing primarily on pilot management, port state control inspections, and fishing vessel safety improvements.

Maritime cases encompass all incidents related to ships and their operations, including collisions, fires, groundings, explosions, and marine pollution. These incidents can lead to casualties, property damage, and severe environmental consequences, highlighting the critical role of maritime safety within overall transportation safety. Strengthening maritime safety is also a key aspect of advancing Taiwan’s overall transportation development.

However, inconsistencies in the definitions, reporting standards, and statistical mechanisms among relevant domestic agencies have led to discrepancies in maritime case reporting and statistical data, creating challenges in aligning with international standards. Establishing a unified and standardized definition and statistical mechanism for maritime cases, while ensuring data consistency across different organizations, has become an urct domestic and international regulations and best practices, systematically improve Taiwan’s maritime case statistics mechanism, and develop corresponding Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). The study will focus on formulating a maritime case statistical system tailored to Taiwan's needs, evaluating Safety Management System (SMS) methodologies, and establishing reliable maritime safety performance indicators. These efforts will help minimize reporting gaps and statistical discrepancies, facilitate integration with global maritime accident databases, and enhance the accuracy and completeness of Taiwan’s maritime incident statistics. Additionally, the project will enable continuous monitoring and assessment of navigational safety improvements.

Through this research, we aim to establish a stronger foundation for Taiwan’s maritime safety management system, enhance Taiwan’s influence in the international maritime sector, ensure the sustainable development and global competitiveness of the nation’s shipping industry, and reinforce Taiwan’s jurisdictional enforcement capabilities over its maritime domain.