The shipping industry is wrestling with one of its biggest challenges — seafarer shortages

The shipping industry is contending with a worldwide shortage of seafarers, and it's fueling a troubling mix of fake resumes, accidents at sea, and elevated freight rates.

"We have been seeing a consistent shortage of seafarers," Rhett Harris, senior manning analyst at Drewry, told CNBC. Though the number of vessels has in recent years risen "exponentially" in the thousands per year, the manpower growth needed for those ships has not kept pace, he said.

"Companies have to employ seafarers with less experience than they would ideally like," added Harris, who noted that those in the higher ranks, and engineers in particular, are in shorter supply than deck officers. 

Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and the ongoing Russian-Ukraine conflict have resulted in a knock-on effect on the availability of skilled seafarers, experts told CNBC.

"Both Ukraine and Russia had supplied a lot of professional seafarers. However, the conflict between Ukraine and Russia has indeed reduced the supply of seafarers from both countries, as they're facing overall labor shortages due to the war," said Daejin Lee, global head of research at FertiStream.

The Philippines, China, Russia, Ukraine and Indonesia are the largest suppliers of the world's seafarers, according to the most recent seafarer workforce breakdown report by the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) and BIMCO in 2021.

Before Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russian and Ukrainian seafarers made up almost 15% of the global shipping workforce, ICS data showed.

ICS expects a shortfall of 90,000 trained seafarers by 2026, ICS told CNBC via email. "Policymakers need to create national strategies to address the seafarer shortage," the shipping organization said.

"It is vital that we