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Wednesday Sunrise Weather 5/22/13
No central agency Oversees, Inspects Cruise Ships 2/17/13
Associated Press
February 17, 2013
MIAMI - A maze of maritime regulations and fragmented oversight of the
cruise industry make it tough for consumers to assess the health and safety
record of ships they're about to board for vacation.
No one entity or country oversees or regulates the industry. There's no
central database for passengers seeking ship information.
The Coast Guard and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offer some
ship safety and health information online.
In the case of the Carnival Triumph ship that spent days disabled at sea
after an engine fire, vacationers could have gone to those agencies' websites
before boarding, but they would have found mostly clean marks and few red flags.
And when something goes wrong, as it did on Triumph, there are limits to how
much the Coast Guard can investigate.