Inmarsat Maritime, now part of Viasat, has unveiled a Maritime Safety Data Hub that it says offers the shipping industry consolidated access to analysis of the risks shaping global maritime safety. ([marinelink.com](https://www.marinelink.com/news/inmarsat-maritime-launches-maritime-542602))
The platform is based on an integrated dataset that combines three years of Global Maritime Distress and Safety System records with a dedicated analysis of 106,975 maritime safety broadcasts transmitted in 2025. ([marinelink.com](https://www.marinelink.com/news/inmarsat-maritime-launches-maritime-542602))
Inmarsat and its data partner presented findings that position meteorological warnings as the dominant factor in urgent marine safety messaging. The analysis found weather accounted for 84.6% of urgent messages in the 2025 broadcast sample, with storms named as 75% of identified weather hazards. ([marinelink.com](https://www.marinelink.com/news/inmarsat-maritime-launches-maritime-542602))
The report highlights temporal links between safety broadcasts and subsequent distress calls, noting instances where distress calls originated in areas for which a warning had previously been issued. The company frames this as evidence of the value of safety broadcasts in allowing vessels to anticipate hazards and, where possible, avoid escalation to distress. ([marinelink.com](https://www.marinelink.com/news/inmarsat-maritime-launches-maritime-542602))
Inmarsat also published sector-level detail from the data: tankers generated the highest number of GMDSS calls in 2025, followed by bulk carriers, while container ships were among vessel types affected by navigational interference. The firm reported comparable totals of GMDSS calls across 2023 to 2025, indicating a broadly consistent three-year trend. ([marinelink.com](https://www.marinelink.com/news/inmarsat-maritime-launches-maritime-542602))
Risk themes and regional pressures
The analysis accompanies commentary that shipping continues to face multiple pressures beyond weather. Inmarsat and its partner SeaFocus link longer voyages, altered trade routes and growing operational complexity to rising exposure to extreme meteorological events and other hazards. ([marinelink.com](https://www.marinelink.com/news/inmarsat-maritime-launches-maritime-542602))
The company pointed to persistent disruptions in certain trade corridors and said sanctions, regional tensions and electronic interference had contributed to changes in routing and operational risk in 2025. Examples cited include diversions to avoid high-risk areas, behaviour that can extend voyage times and increase fuel use and crew workload. ([marinelink.com](https://www.marinelink.com/news/inmarsat-maritime-launches-maritime-542602))
The hub and how it is presented
Inmarsat describes the Maritime Safety Data Hub as an interactive tool that lets users explore trends, filter data by vessel type, region and incident category, and extract insights for their own operations. The platform is presented as placing aggregated intelligence and downloadable analysis directly into the hands of industry stakeholders. ([marinelink.com](https://www.marinelink.com/news/inmarsat-maritime-launches-maritime-542602))
The company framed the hub as moving beyond isolated incident reporting toward pattern recognition and trend analysis, enabling a multi-dimensional view of safety that links warnings, distress calls and contextual factors influencing risk. The dataset and tools are offered as a means to inform operational planning and risk mitigation. ([marinelink.com](https://www.marinelink.com/news/inmarsat-maritime-launches-maritime-542602))
The release of the hub was carried on MarineLink on 1 September 2026, underlining the vendor’s stated intent to make maritime-safety intelligence more readily accessible to operators, shore-based teams and other stakeholders. A link to access the Maritime Safety Data Hub was provided in the item. ([marinelink.com](https://www.marinelink.com/news/inmarsat-maritime-launches-maritime-542602))