Photo courtesy World Maritime University The global seafarers crisis takes center stage at the World Maritime University (WMU), as Dr. Michael Ekow Manuel discusses the importance of seafarers, seafarer training and the MarTID 2021 survey. While many maritime professionals have the theoretical ‘salt in their veins’, a career at sea seemingly predestined by family ties and/or geographic proximity, that is not the case for Dr. Michael Manuel, Professor, WMU. Hailing from Ghana, Dr. Manuel from a young age had a fascination with vehicles and everything that moves, but ships were not his focus, rather airplanes. “It was relatively later on in my teen years that I was exposed to shipping, and I became interested in the technical side of it, the fact that these are the largest moving things that man has made,” said Dr. Manuel. “Once I got into it I was exposed to other aspects beyond the machinery: the education, the cargo and safety-at-sea. Finally, I ‘dropped anchor,’ so to speak, in this industry.”