The Coast Guard said it expects cruise lines to rely on
video monitors rather than automatic detection and alarm systems to meet a
safety requirement regarding passengers falling or jumping off ships.
The agency’s newly proposed rule, implementing a 2010 safety
law, would allow cruise lines to use recording technology to address the
problem of passengers going overboard while at sea.
So-called man overboard (MOB) technology has been tested by
various cruise lines, and its backers say it could save lives and reduce
search-and-rescue costs. But the Coast Guard noted that CLIA believes the
detection systems “are not yet reliable under marine conditions.”
“The technology to reliably detect persons as they are in the
process of going overboard does not presently exist,” CLIA asserted.
The Coast Guard went on to say that “we expect that owners
and operators will select the image-capture option provided by Congress until
such time that fall-detection technology is believed to be sufficiently
reliable.”
The issue of how to curb the number of overboard incidents
has been raised by groups such as the International Cruise Victims, which was
formed in 2006, in part to raise awareness of cruise ship disappearances. According
to the Coast Guard, about 2.2 deaths or missing persons a year result from
overboard incidents on cruise ships around the world. A database kept by
University of Newfoundland professor Ross Klein, which tracks ferries as well
as cruise ships globally, includes 243 overboard reports since 2000.
One of the latest occurred Jan. 8 off Cozumel, Mexico, when
a 22-year-old male passenger fell or jumped from Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the
Seas, only to be rescued several hours later by the passing Disney Cruise Line
ship Disney Magic.
Marine surveillance companies have been working for a decade
to perfect an alarm system that would sound when it detects a person tumbling
off a ship.
The system uses thermal cameras mounted on the hull and
other parts of a ship to detect body heat. The images are fed through computers
that use algorithms to quickly assess what the camera is seeing.
The alarm can be sounded on the bridge or at other
centralized security stations.
Supplier companies say cruise lines are actively interested
in the idea, but CLIA listed nearly a dozen obstacles to reliability.
Some have to do with the special factors of a marine
environment, such as salt corrosion or encrustation on camera lenses. Surface glare from the water, the pitch and
yaw of a ship, extreme weather, vessel vibration and a continually changing
horizon are all listed as constraints.
“CLIA recognizes that many systems exist and are suitable in
a static land-based environment,” the white paper stated. “However, the cruise
industry has evaluated and demonstrated numerous MOB detection systems, and
most have been determined to be unworthy of further consideration.”
Companies that have been testing systems on cruise ships as
far back as 2006 include Seafaring Security Services of Virginia Beach, Va.,
and PureTech Systems of Phoenix.
Larry Bowe, president of PureTech, said he believes his
company’s system can meet the reliability requirements of the cruise lines.
“Given our extensive testing to date, we do feel the
technology is readily available and can be deployed in the near future,” he
said.
Bowe said the problem of an unstable horizon can be
addressed with the proper computer analytics and that maintenance in a marine
environment likewise is manageable.
“Cameras have been on ships for a long time, so I have to
believe those issues can be addressed,” he said.
The proposed Coast Guard rule gives cruise lines the choice
of either using detection systems or capturing images that can later be used in
a search-and-rescue operation, or a combination of both.
Bowe said it would be vastly more effective to have the
capability of instant alert.
“If you have cameras onboard and you’re capturing imagery,
why not add detection?” he asked. “These events can take as little as half a
second. What’s the likelihood that someone is going to be watching that imagery
in a half a second time during a seven-day cruise to happen to catch them?”
Under the Coast Guard proposal, the recordings of captured
images would have to be time-stamped and archived for 14 days. They would be
used to narrow a search for any missing persons.
Some of the same companies that make MOB systems also
provide security cameras for ships. The new Coast Guard proposals also set
rules for such surveillance, as required by the 2010 Cruise Vessel Safety and
Security Act. The agency has been writing rules to implement provisions of the
act.
The surveillance rule would require coverage of any area on
a ship where passengers and crew both have access. CLIA had warned a rule that
was too detailed and proscriptive wouldn’t fit every ship.
One passenger group had asked for active monitoring of
cameras as well as recording, but the Coast Guard did not adopt that approach.
The surveillance requirement won’t change much for most
cruise lines, which already extensively
monitor their ships. According to one surveillance supplier, some ships carry
as many as 1,400 security cameras.
The Coast Guard is proposing that video from the cameras be
kept for 14 days, rather than for the 90 days advocated by passenger groups.
Other provisions of the proposed rule, which was published
in the Federal Register Jan. 16, would require a printed guide to security in
every stateroom and establish more procedures for training ship personnel on
crime investigation practices. It would also codify a 42-inch height standard
for exterior guard rails and bulwarks.
The Coast Guard said its rules would apply to 147 ships that
either board or disembark passengers in U.S. territory but not to ships that
merely visit for a port call.
It estimated the 10-year cost of the rules to the cruise
lines and the U.S. government at nearly $80 million, including about $30 million
for image-capturing systems.
Once the rules are finalized, it would complete the Coast
Guard’s implementation of the cruise safety act, most of which is already in
force.
Bowe said the MOB technology has continued to advance since
the Coast Guard first sought comment in 2011 and that cameras, processing power
and algorithms have substantially improved.
Comments are due by April 16.
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