You are OOW, sole watchkeeper, and a lookout has just reported a vessel fine on the port bow that you had not yet picked up on radar. What does effective BRM require of you at this moment, beyond just plotting the target?

A. Politely note the report but continue your current task first, since the lookout may be mistaken

B. Treat the lookout as a genuine resource: acknowledge the report clearly (closed-loop communication), get eyes and radar onto the target immediately, and integrate what they saw into your own situational picture rather than treating it as a lesser source of information than the instruments

C. Tell the lookout to only report vessels that are already showing on radar

D. Disregard visual reports in restricted areas since radar is the primary source

A. Leave procedural compliance to each head of department, with no cross-checking

B. Wait until an incident occurs, then retrain the individuals involved

C. Rely on the SMS manual alone — if it's written down, crew will follow it

D. Actively encourage crew to raise near-misses and procedural drift without fear of blame, and personally follow the same standards you expect of others

A. Near-miss reports are only useful for the annual safety meeting

B. Reporting near-misses is mainly a way to assign blame to the individual involved

C. It doesn't matter — near-misses on one ship have no bearing on others

D. Near-miss data, shared and analysed across a fleet (and via schemes like CHIRP Maritime), helps identify recurring risks before they cause a serious incident elsewhere