The three largest cruise lines, Carnival Corporation, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, have pledged to publish more data about crimes that takes place on board their cruises voluntarily, according to FOX News.
A report showed that hundreds of crimes have been alleged to occur on cruise ships during the past two years but have not been publicly reported, according to a report from the Senate committee that was released on Wednesday.
Of the incidents that were reported to the FBI by cruise ship companies, which numbered 959 since 2011, only 31 of the alleged crimes have been disclosed to the public on a web site that's maintained by the Coast Guard.
The report was troubling and called for stricter reporting guidelines for alleged criminal incidents that occur on cruise ships, Senator John D. Rockefeller, a democrat from Washington, who is also chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, said.
"Consumers have no way to find out what their real risks are before they book a cruise," Rockefeller told the committee and witnesses, among which included executives from Carnival Cruise Lines and Royal Caribbean International.
Congress passed the Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act of 2010 to increase regulation of the cruise industry. The bill, passed in 2010, included a requirement by the U.S. Coast Guard to maintain a public website disclosing crime allegations arising on U.S. cruises. The information was limited to probes that were completed by the FBI. The new policy included the disclosure of all alleged crimes on ships worldwide.
"In the spirit of transparency, the three largest cruise companies, making up over 85 percent of the cruise industry, voluntarily agreed to expand that reporting," Adam Goldstein, the president of Royal Caribbean International said on Wednesday, speaking before Rockefeller's committee. He promised the Royal Caribbean will begin posting the expanded data for all of its cruise divisions beginning on August 1, and that the information will be retroactive, dating back to the fourth quarter of 2010.
It will also include all incidents, regardless of whether the cases have been closed.
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