Effective immediately, a new lifeboat policy has been adopted for the cruise industry, an outcome of the Cruise Industry Operational Review. The operational review is a panel launched after the Costa Concordia incident earlier this year to evaluate and cross-check all cruise line safety policies.

Under this new policy cruise lines must fill their lifeboats to capacity with crew members and deploy them at least once every six months.

“The cruise industry continues to work on a global level to improve the safety of passengers and crew, which is our number one priority,” said Christine Duffy, president and CEO of CLIA. “Since January of this year, and in keeping with our efforts to continuously improve operational excellence, the global cruise industry has voluntarily adopted seven wide-ranging safety policies. We remain fully committed to exploring further enhancements in a number of areas that will add to the industry’s excellent safety record.”

The new policy is a collaboration with Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), the European Cruise Council (ECC) and the global cruise industry. USA Today outlines the policy in detail.

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