Implementation of Training Requirements for Personnel Serving on U.S.-Flagged Passenger Ships That Carry More Than 12 Passengers on International Voyages

The Coast Guard locked in new training rules for mariners on U.S.-flagged passenger ships.

STCW amendments rarely make headlines, but they decide who can stand a watch when the ship clears the pilot station.

Filing abstract (agency text): The Coast Guard is amending its merchant mariner training regulations to implement amendments to the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers, 1978, and the Seafarers' Training, Certification and Watchkeeping Code, to require personnel serving on U.S.-flagged passenger ships carrying more than 12 passengers on international voyages to complete passenger ship emergency familiarization. This final rule also expands the applicability of the required crowd management training to include specified ratings on passenger ships. These required trainings would promote the safety of life at sea.

Passenger-vessel operators and maritime academies should map the amended training table to existing STCW certificates before the compliance date.

Federal Register filing: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/09/25/2026-19652/implementation-of-training-requirements-for-personnel-serving-on-us-flagged-passenger-ships-that

This is a Notice Nearby publisher-desk Federal brief — a short in-house summary of a public federal filing. It is not official agency minutes, not a newspaper story, and not Legal Publication. It does not satisfy a statutory notice requirement.