On 1-2 December 2025, Maria Borovnik (Primary Investigator) and Johanna Thomas-Maude (Postdoctoral Fellow) attended the AusMob 2025 Symposium on “Volatile Mobilities” in Melbourne, Australia. The theme for the conference was the role of volatility as a defining feature of contemporary mobilities, providing an interesting lens for presenting preliminary findings on this research on seafaring work and responses during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond – a time of global volatility with profound impacts on seafarers.

Johanna presented on “A logistical nightmare”: Institutional ambiguity and seafaring mobilities during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Her presentation drew on interviews with international and local organisations involved in maritime governance, exploring how fragmented responsibilities, shifting regulations, and uneven recognition of seafarers as “key workers” produced what one participant described as “a logistical nightmare”.

Maria presented a paper entitled “This job is my only choice”: An ongoing dilemma for seafarers since COVID-19, drawing on survey data and conversations with seafarers and seafarer welfare organisations. Her presentation highlighted the difficult consequences of sea blindness on seafarers. Sea blindness is the widespread invisibility of seafarers and their labour among shore-based populations, who rely on maritime transport in their everyday lives.

Attending AusMob 2025 was an invaluable chance to connect with other mobilities researchers and to situate this work within a wider discourse on volatile (im)mobilities, labour, mobility justice, and agency. We are grateful to the symposium organisers for this opportunity.