---
kind: "section"
citation: "46 C.F.R. § 131.320"
title: "46"
number: "131.320"
heading: "Safety orientation for offshore workers."
url: "https://uscodex.org/cfr/46/131.320"
---

# §131.320. Safety orientation for offshore workers.

- (a) Before a vessel gets under way on a voyage, the master shall ensure that suitable public announcements are made informing each offshore worker of—
  - (1) In general terms, emergency and evacuation procedures;
  - (2) Locations of emergency exits and of embarkation areas for survival craft;
  - (3) Locations of stowage of lifejackets and immersion suits;
  - (4) With demonstration, proper method or methods of donning and adjusting lifejackets and immersion suits of the type or types carried on the vessel;
  - (5) Locations of the instruction placards for lifejackets and other lifesaving devices;
  - (6) Explanation that each offshore worker shall don an immersion suit and a lifejacket when the master determines that hazardous conditions do or might exist but that offshore workers may don lifejackets whenever they feel it necessary;
  - (7) Which hazardous conditions might require the donning of lifejackets and immersion suits;
  - (8) Types and locations of any other lifesaving device carried on the vessel;
  - (9) Locations and contents of the “Emergency Instructions” required by [§ 131.330](/cfr/46/131.330.md);
  - (10) Survival craft to which assigned;
  - (11) Any hazardous materials on the vessel; and
  - (12) **Any conditions or circumstances that constitute a risk to safety.**
- (b) The master of each vessel shall ensure that each offshore worker boarding the vessel on a voyage after the initial public announcement has been made, as required by [paragraph (a)](#a) of this section, also hears the information in [paragraph (a)](#a) of this section.

## Notes

### Authority

Authority: 33 U.S.C. 1321(j); 46 U.S.C. 3306, 6101, 10104; E.O. 12234, 3 CFR, 1980 Comp., p. 277; E.O. 12777, 3 CFR, 1991 Comp., p. 351; DHS Delegation No. 00170.1, Revision No. 01.4. Section 131.990 also issued under sec. 617, Pub. L. 111-281, 124 Stat. 2905.

### Source

Source: CGD 82-004 and CGD 86-074, 62 FR 49340, Sept. 19, 1997, unless otherwise noted.