B737 captain reported multiple sealed life vest pouches with no life vests inside on airplane.

Attributes
ACN	1632695
Time
Date	201904
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	Mixed
Light	Dawn
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737-800
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Parked
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 429
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Procedural FAR Deviation - Procedural MEL

Narrative:

We arrived at the gate for our originator and were briefed by the operations agent that we had two (2) missing life vests at seat 17A and 17B; but that the pouches were sealed with the appropriate security seal. The discrepancy was not fixed by the cleaning crew or ground operations because they were unsure of the location of the spare life vests. There would also need to be a logbook entry and associated MEL for the usage and therefore missing spare life vests. All these tasks were accomplished per ops binder.first of all; kudos to the cleaning crew for finding the missing life vests even though there was a seal present on the pouches. I am writing this [report] as a safety concern; since I started wondering how long the life vests had been missing and how or why the pouches were sealed without the life vests being present. I am certain that the implications could be dire during a situation requiring their use.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737 Captain reported multiple sealed Life Vest Pouches with no life vests inside on airplane.

Narrative: We arrived at the Gate for our originator and were briefed by the Operations Agent that we had two (2) missing life vests at Seat 17A and 17B; but that the pouches were sealed with the appropriate security seal. The discrepancy was not fixed by the cleaning crew or Ground Operations because they were unsure of the location of the spare life vests. There would also need to be a logbook entry and associated MEL for the usage and therefore missing spare life vests. All these tasks were accomplished per Ops Binder.First of all; kudos to the Cleaning Crew for finding the missing life vests even though there was a seal present on the pouches. I am writing this [report] as a safety concern; since I started wondering how long the life vests had been missing and how or why the pouches were sealed without the life vests being present. I am certain that the implications could be dire during a situation requiring their use.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.