Seafarers in the Republic of Croatia play a major role in the development of tourism, fishing and liner passenger shipping itself, given the indentation of the Croatian coast. The reconciliation of interests, rights and obligations between the seafarer and the employer are regulated by the Collective Bargining Agreement. The legal regulations for signing-on seafarers in national navigation have been addresses in this paper. Conditions that must be met for obtaining certificates of competencies and additional certification, obtaining a title, training, professional preparation and medical certification have been analyzed. An example of a passenger vessel in national navigation and the conditions that the shipowner must fulfill by signing-on a minimum number of crew members have been described. Furthermore, the inspections of ships, which is carried out by navigation safety inspectors and authorized employees of the Ministry, have been described. The most important part of the paper is the analysis of the signing-on of seafarers in the period between 2018. to 2022., which shows decline in the number of signed on seafarers during the COVID-19 virus pandemic, which continued in the following years.