Crew members bundle a rope ladder aboard a ship as it leaves Inchon port, South Korea. China's ratification of the 2006 Maritime Labour Convention will protect the rights of the nation's 620,000 merchant sailors.[Photo/China Daily]

Recruitment shortfall

COSCO believes that experienced, motivated sailors are among the most important resources for shipping companies, so they deserve decent working conditions and welfare provision.

"We give a dozen seafarers a ship and cargo worth a combined $1 bill-ion and let them take it out on the ocean. We have to trust them. We have to build a strong connection with them by providing good jobs and careers they can be proud of," he said, adding that fewer people are willing to work as sailors now.

In 1993, when Jia made his first voyage, as a young officer on a cargo ship, he earned more than 2,000 yuan a month, an enviable sum at a time when the average monthly income in Beijing was no more than 1,000 yuan.

Now, though, the monthly salary of an ordinary mariner ranges from 10,000 to 20,000 yuan, little higher than white collar workers in big cities, he said.

"When I was studying navigation in Dalian (Liaoning province), I had classmates from big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, but now few people from those cities join the shipping industry," he said. "Even among students who study related majors, 10 percent abandon maritime work after their first voyage."

Liu Yue, a 39-year-old freighter captain, said that when he joined the industry 18 years ago, his friends in his hometown in Jiangsu province all envied him because his salary was five times higher than theirs, and he was able to travel overseas, which was still a luxury for most Chinese.

"Now, many young sailors on my ship are thinking about quitting. I'm disappointed, but I understand. Working on the ocean is tough and now the income has fallen, they have more choices on land," he said.

"I hope the convention will improve working and living conditions and make being a mariner a respectable profession."