What does protecting health at sea require today?
This Book of Abstracts brings together multidisciplinary research presented at the 2026 BlueRights International Conference on Protection of Health at Sea. Organised around living and working conditions, wellbeing and mental health, and health in crisis and conflict, the collection explores issues ranging from seafarer abandonment, maritime labour, nutrition, gender, and decarbonisation to climate change, armed conflict, legal fragmentation, and accountability. Together, the abstracts offer a timely snapshot of research advancing rights-based approaches to protecting people at sea.
The publication reflects the breadth of the BlueRights research agenda and the diversity of perspectives needed to address health at sea in practice. Contributors examine how legal frameworks, working environments, organisational cultures, crisis response, and global governance shape the lives and wellbeing of seafarers, fishers, maritime workers, migrants, and others who live, work, or move across the sea.
By placing health in conversation with dignity, equality, safety, labour rights, mental wellbeing, and access to effective protection, the Book of Abstracts shows that health at sea cannot be treated as a narrow medical issue. It is a human rights concern, shaped by the conditions in which people work, travel, seek safety, and face risk in maritime spaces.
As a resource, the volume offers an entry point into current debates on human rights at sea and highlights emerging research questions for scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and maritime stakeholders interested in building safer, fairer, and more accountable maritime environments.