Cruise Industry Announce 3 New Safety Policies

The global cruise industry has adopted three new safety policies which are to be implemented with immediate effect

Chairman of the European Cruise Council and Member of the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) Executive Committee, Manfredi Lefebvre, made the announcement in Brussels, outlining how these policies have been agreed by the industry and represent the third such announcement from the cruise industries Operational Safety Review.

These three new policies, which go beyond even the strictest of regulatory requirements, address the following issues. Each of these three policies will be reported to the IMO's Maritime Safety Committee for consideration at their next session in May:

1) Passage Planning – although cruise lines have followed IMO guidance on passage planning for many years our policy now deems this to be a mandatory minimum requirement and enhanced by endorsement of the best practices contained in the International Chamber of Shipping’s Bridge Procedures Guide. Furthermore, under this policy each passage plan is to be thoroughly briefed to all bridge team members well in advance of its implementation and it is to be drafted by a designated officer and approved by the master.

2) Personnel Access To The Bridge - to minimize unnecessary disruptions and distractions on the bridge we have adopted a policy that bridge access is to be limited to those with operational functions during any period of restricted manoeuvring or when increased vigilance is required.

3) Lifejackets – In addition to the statutory requirement of carriage of lifejackets for each person onboard, we have adopted a policy of carrying additional adult lifejackets onboard each cruise ship in excess of these legal requirements so that the number of additional adult lifejackets to be provided must not be less than the total number of persons berthed within the ship’s most populated main vertical fire zone. This ensures that the number of lifejackets carried are far in excess of the number of persons actually onboard the ship..