WASHINGTON — Cruise ships are expected to carry 12.6 million Americans on vacations this year, but those travelers would be hard pressed to find basic information about crimes and accidents that happen aboard those vessels, two senators said today.

The complaint came during a Senate Commerce subcommittee hearing on ways to improve cruise ship safety and reporting standards, including giving more help to sexual assault victims, putting law enforcement officers on board and creating a public registry of cruise ship crimes.

"If parents want to take their family to the Jersey Shore or Disney World but want more information about public safety, they can either go online or call the local authorities," said U.S. Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J., chairman of the subcommittee. "But if parents want to take their family on a cruise, there is nowhere to get public safety information."

Lautenberg and U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., both complained that even the subcommittee had a difficult time obtaining basic data from the FBI on the types of crimes that occur at sea and their frequency.

"If the Senate committee that oversees maritime safety and security has a hard time getting that information, imagine the frustration of an American family trying to plan a trip," Lautenberg said.

Terry Dale, president of the Cruise Lines International Association, told the subcommittee that the top priority of the $35 billion industry is the safety of its passengers and crew.

Dale said the industry has implemented numerous changes, including thoroughly screeningboarding passengers and luggage, training staff to counsel and support people during emergencies and placing qualified security personnel on each ship.

"Americans are extremely safe at sea today," Dale told the subcommittee.

But Kerry said that because all but one oceangoing cruise ship operate under foreign flags, current law does not require them to report crimes that occur outside U.S. territorial waters.

Under an agreement with the FBI and the Coast Guard, the cruise association's 24 member lines voluntarily reported 489 crimes on their ships from April 1, 2007, through April 30, 2008. The FBI found that 346 incidents did not fall into the eight categories of serious crimes covered in the reporting system.

But the others included one suspicious death, eight cases of missing people and 83 reports of sexual assault.

Kerry said he was "suspicious" of the voluntary crime reporting agreement because it depends on the industry to report incidents that damage its reputation.

Kerry and Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., will introduce legislation later this month to improve safety and crime reporting standards and require that someone on every ship's crew have the expertise to preserve evidence when crimes occur.

Because such crimes occur when the victim is vacationing, Ross A. Klein, a social work professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland, said they are more severe, especially given the industry's advertising and its pronouncements that cruising is the safest form of commercial transportation.

"Passengers go onboard unaware of the risks they face," he said. "The situation is made worse by the relaxed attitude that comes with being on vacation, lowered defenses that come with consumption of alcohol ... and an unnatural sense of safety given the uninhibited sociality that comes with being on a cruise."

The network's recommendations included tougher reporting standards of onboard sexual assaults and penalties for not doing so, providing immediate access by telephone or Internet to rape crisis personnel and increasing the oversight of crew training and conduct.

Ken Carver, whose 40-year-old daughter disappeared on a 2004 Royal Caribbean cruise to Alaska, called for a comprehensive legislative solution.

"Cruise lines have shown no willingness to voluntarily commit to make substantial changes in the current practices in order to protect passengers," said Carver, a founder of International Cruise Victims Association.

The victims advocacy group has a 10-point program to increase cruising safety. It wants background checks of crewmembers, placement of law enforcement officers on cruise ships, more monitoring of video surveillance cameras and increasing railing height to make it more difficult for people to fall overboard.