Costa Concordia, Interview With Michael Crye of CLIA

Michael Crye is the executive vice president of the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), the world’s largest cruise association. In this position Michael Crye is responsible for the development and execution of regulatory policies and monitors domestic and international legislation on behalf of the cruise industry and represents the passenger industry at the International Maritime Organization in London.

As a former Captain in the United States Coast Guard, Michael Crye has spent his career working on marine safety issues and this interview with CBC Canada’s the fifth estate, Crye responds to concerns that cruising is unsafe.

Overall, despite the appropriate dogging of some questions, the interview is informative and provides a good insight into the future of the cruise ship industry. One important point repeated by Crye is that new technological invoation is making the newest, largest ships safer than existing cruise ships. In the video he mentions new electronic bridge systems and lifeboats with increasly larger embarkation hatches to allow quicker passenger loading.  This leads to an important question… will older cruise ships be retrofitted with the new lifeboats and bridge systems?

The full interview video can be found at CBC’s the fifth estate.