Documented submission of an incident that did not cause harm but had the potential to.
In practice
Operator-defined target of 5+ near misses per ship per month encourages reporting culture. Reports feed into the SMS for trend analysis; oil-major TMSA Element 12 verifies. Persistent zero-near-miss reporting is itself a flag.
Regulatory detail & full definition
Near-miss reporting is the documented submission of an incident that caused no injury, damage or pollution but had the potential to do so, so that its causes can be corrected before a real accident occurs. It is required under ISM Code Element 9 (the analysis and correction of non-conformities and incidents), and companies often set a monthly reporting target per crew member to build a strong reporting culture. Reports are usually categorised as an 'unsafe act', an 'unsafe condition' or an 'event', reviewed at the Management Review, and fed back into updated procedures.