Coast Guard Bill that Mandates Reporting of Cruise Ship Crimes is Passed by Congress Despite Bush Veto Threat

www.boston.com

By Andrew Miga
Associated Press Writer / April 24, 2008
WASHINGTON—Defying President Bush's threatened veto, the House on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a bill making the Coast Guard enforce security zones around eight liquefied natural gas terminals and any arriving tankers --all potential terrorism targets.
more stories like this... The bill also sets stricter crime reporting requirements for cruise ships and requires double hulls around fuel tanks on large cargo ships to prevent catastrophic oil spills like the one in San Francisco Bay in November. To address complaints that crimes aboard cruise ships are underreported, the bill makes line operators report to the Homeland Security Department all security incidents, including deaths, serious bodily injuries and sexual assaults.
Cruise lines also are required to post crime statistics on an Internet site maintained by the Coast Guard, with links from the cruise line public Web sites. "Sometimes, even cruise ships need sunshine," said Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif. Cruise lines last year announced a voluntary agreement with the FBI and the Coast Guard to improve and standardize crime reporting.
"The bottom line is, the crime statistics provided by the cruise industry are inaccurate and inadequate," said Rep. Chris Shays, R-Conn. "This has got to change." Cruise line industry officials say the reporting requirement is redundant, since they are already doing so voluntarily.

Coast Guard Suspends Search for Carnival Victory Cruise Passenger Who Fell Overboard

www.military.com/news
April 24, 2008U.S. Coast Guardby PO Barry Bena
MIAMI - The Coast Guard suspended its search at 9:15 p.m. Wednesday for a 44-year-old man who went missing from the cruise ship Carnival Victory approximately 38 miles northeast of Cozumel, Mexico.
Steven Manning, 44, of Illinois, was reportedly last seen around 1 a.m. Tuesday. Later that day, his wife had reported him missing to the ship's crew. After the cruise ship crew completed on board announcements and searches of the ship, the Coast Guard was notified at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
Approximately 1,560 square miles of ocean were searched by two HC-130 Hercules aircrews from Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater, Fla.

Cruise Victims Testify in California about Horrors and Dangers of Unregulated Cruise Ships

http://www.capitolweekly.net/article.php?xid=x19cdso0iysdjv
By Malcolm Maclachlan (published Thursday, April 10, 2008)
Cruise ships conjure up happy visions of the Love Boat and the sun-kissed South Pacific. But a crime-victims advocacy group says there's a lot going on that people don't know about--and that passengers often are at risk. The cruise lines take the legal position they do not investigate crimes," Carver said. "They say, we go to the FBI, which is voluntary. The FBI says they don't have the resources. No one does anything."

The committee also heard testimony from Laurie Dishman of Sacramento. She said a security guard sexually assaulted her in her cabin in 2006 on another Royal Caribbean-operated ship. The guard was originally hired as a janitor and only became a guard because of a lack of trained guards on that particular cruise. When she tried to report the crime to the ship's management, Dishman said, she was rebuffed and even told to gather evidence by using a police "rape kit" on herself.

In fact, Carver said, a majority of crimes on cruise ships are committed by crew members, with sexual assault being the most common crime. Most incidents are never reported to U.S. law enforcement authorities, he said. Over a period of just under five months last year, according to the FBI, they received 207 complaints of serious crimes on cruise ships. This included 41 sexual assaults and four missing persons.

Somali pirates seize French cruise ship

http://www.marinelog.com/DOCS/NEWSMMVII/2008apr00050.html

April 5, 2008
A French cruise ship is being kept under surveillance following its seizure by pirates off coast of Somalia, Friday. The ship is the 88 m, 64-passenger, three masted sail-assisted Le Ponant, operated by CNA CGM subsidiary Compagnie des Iles du Ponant. CMA CGM says 30 crew members and no passengers were on board when the ship was seized. It was headedback to the Mediterranean after completing a Seychelles itinerary. A French foreign ministry statement said that on news of the incident, all the means at France's disposal in the region were immediately mobilized and an interministerial crisis team has been set up, under an antipiracy plan set in action on Friday by Prime Minister Francois Fillon. Minister of Defense Herve Morin said earlier today that French authorities have had no contact since the attack with either the ship's crew or the pirates

Four Carnival Destiny Passengers Robbed and Two Crewmen on a Another Cruise Ship Were Stabbed

Cruise passengers robbed:
sun-weekend.com
Four passengers who arrived in Antigua Thursday on the Carnival Destiny cruise ship were robbed of a quantity of cash and personal belongings. The incident reportedly took place at the Pigeon Point Beach in English Harbour. According to reports reaching the Antigua Sun, the passengers who are from Zacatecas, Mexico went on an island tour with a taxi and stopped off at Pigeon Point Beach to take a swim.

www.bermudasun.bm
Two crewmen on a Bermuda-registered cruise ship were stabbed in a dispute on the high seas. The three disputants are from Mauritius. The two injured men are recovering in a Panamanian hospital, the suspect is locked in the ship’s brig and three Bermuda police officers have flown out to investigate. They’ll meet the ship in Aruba before going on to Panama. Bermuda police have to investigate crimes on Bermuda-registered ships in international waters.