Transport Canada Marine Medical

What the exam is looking for

• Identity and the certificate sought (e.g. watchkeeping vs other seafarer categories on the current form).
• Vision and hearing as Transport Canada specifies for that certificate, including colour vision when required.
• Cardiovascular, metabolic, neurologic, and psychiatric conditions that cause sudden incapacity or that cannot be managed at sea.
• Medications that sedate or that require monitoring you cannot do on a ship.
• Musculoskeletal function for the actual work: ladders, hatches, emergency drills — not 'office fit.'
• Restrictions you are authorized to put on the certificate, or unfit, with the duration the form allows.

If a specialist opinion is required, do not issue unrestricted fitness while you wait. Temporary unfit or a time-limited restriction is cleaner than a certificate you will have to retract.

Worked example (fictional)

Designated marine medical examiner exam, 28 Aug 2026.
Role: deck rating, coastal. Not a watchkeeping colour-vision-critical post on this application.
Vision: meets the numeric standard on today's chart with correction; spare glasses on file. Hearing: conversational and form's screening — pass. Colour: Ishihara pass.
BP 138/82 on ramipril 10 mg, no end-organ history, last creatinine normal. No seizure, no insulin, no untreated apnea. Can climb two flights in clinic without chest pain.
Fitness: fit for the applied certificate, no restriction, duration as the current TC form allows for this age/category.
If I were not designated, I would not sign. Chart copy kept.

Why certificates bounce

• Signed by a clinician who is not designated.
• Wrong certificate category.
• Vision or hearing fields blank.
• Insulin-treated diabetes or untreated seizure disease issued unrestricted because the seafarer 'needs the job.'
• Expired form version.

Frequently asked questions