Ship Navigation Ethics Standards

---
name: ship-navigation-ethics-standards
description: |
  Apply the ethical codes and professional standards that govern a ship's navigation officer.
  TRIGGERS - Use when a ship's navigation officer needs a ethics & professional standards for ship owners, crews and port authorities in ships' bridges.
category: Ship Navigation
license: MIT
version: 1.0
---
# Ethics & Professional Standards — Ship Navigation

Apply the ethical codes and professional standards that govern a ship's navigation officer. The deliverable is an ethics guide with principles, common dilemmas and decision steps.
This skill is written for a ship's navigation officer working with ship owners, crews and port authorities in ships' bridges.

## When to use
- You are a ship's navigation officer preparing, delivering or reviewing this part of your work in ships' bridges.
- You need a defensible, repeatable approach that produces an ethics guide with principles, common dilemmas and decision steps.
- A colleague, auditor or client asks how this was done and what evidence supports it.

## Key Concepts
| Term | Meaning |
|------|---------|
| ECDIS | the electronic chart display and information system |
| Passage plan | the complete plan for a voyage from berth to berth |
| COLREGs | the international rules for preventing collisions at sea |

## Workflow
1. **Step 1** - Know the code that applies in ships' bridges: consent, confidentiality, honesty, competence and conflicts of interest
2. **Step 2** - Work through dilemmas with a framework: facts, stakeholders, options, code provisions, then decide and record
3. **Step 3** - Protect ship owners, crews and port authorities first where duties conflict, and be alert to how groundings and collisions can arise from ethical shortcuts
4. **Step 4** - Declare conflicts of interest early and manage them transparently rather than hoping they stay invisible
5. **Step 5** - Raise concerns about others' practice through the proper channels, with evidence from voyage plans, and support colleagues who do the same

## Profession-Specific Components
| Component | Details for Ship Navigation |
|-----------|-------------------------------|
| Core documentation | voyage plans; log books; chart corrections; watch records |
| Core tools & equipment | ECDIS chart systems; radar; gyro compasses; communication equipment |
| People involved | ship owners, crews and port authorities; the ship's navigation officer; colleagues and other services in ships' bridges |
| Primary record | voyage plans — keep it current, dated and attributable |

## Output Format
**Context:** [Situation in ships' bridges] | **Objective:** [What this must achieve] | **Audience:** [ship owners, crews and port authorities and other stakeholders]

The finished output is an ethics guide with principles, common dilemmas and decision steps, structured as:
1. Summary of position and evidence
2. Detail, following the workflow above
3. Decisions, actions, owners and dates
4. Review point and escalation route

### Action Plan
1. **Immediate:** Confirm scope, consent and the evidence available in voyage plans.
2. **Short-term:** Complete the workflow steps and record outcomes against voyage plan compliance.
3. **Medium-term:** Review results, close actions, and update local procedures in ships' bridges.

## Success Metrics
| Metric | Target | Method |
|--------|--------|--------|
| voyage plan compliance | Agree a local target and track the trend | Measured from voyage plans and reviewed on a set cycle |
| near-miss reports | Agree a local target and track the trend | Measured from voyage plans and reviewed on a set cycle |
| chart correction currency | Agree a local target and track the trend | Measured from voyage plans and reviewed on a set cycle |
| watch handover quality | Agree a local target and track the trend | Measured from voyage plans and reviewed on a set cycle |

## Guardrails & Quality Checks
- Never let this happen: groundings and collisions.
- Never let this happen: outdated charts.
- Never let this happen: fatigue on watch.
- Work only within the competence and authority of a ship's navigation officer; escalate or refer anything beyond it.
- Record facts and observations, not speculation, and keep records confidential to ships' bridges's rules.
- Verify names, dates, figures and measurements twice before anything is issued or signed off.
- Use only real, verified information from the case in hand — never invent results, credentials or evidence.

## Example (illustrative)
A ship's navigation officer in ships' bridges applies this workflow for ship owners, crews and port authorities: they open
voyage plans, work through the five steps using ECDIS chart systems, and close by recording
the outcome against voyage plan compliance and agreeing the next review date. (Illustrative example only —
replace with the real details of the case in hand.)