Cruise Line to Pay Record-Breaking $40 million Fine for Illegal Dumping

Princess Cruises to pay record-breaking criminal fine for ocean pollution

Princess Cruise Lines has agreed to plead guilty to seven felony charges and pay a $40 million penalty for polluting the ocean with waste and then trying to cover it up. Federal prosecutors said the payment represents the largest-ever criminal penalty involving deliberate pollution by a ship at sea.

...

At the heart of the criminal case lies one ship in particular, the 3,192-passenger Caribbean Princess, which prosecutors said used a “magic pipe” to bypass the ship’s usual equipment and illegally discharge thousands of gallons of oily waste into the ocean. The practice came to the attention of authorities after an engineer on the ship reported the problem to British investigators in summer 2013. The ship was sailing off the coast of England at the time, and the whistleblowing engineer quit his job when the vessel reached Southampton, England.

Officials from the Justice Department said the ship’s chief engineer and senior first engineer tried to cover up the practice, removing the magic pipe and ordering subordinates to lie to authorities. Upon the ship’s arrival in New York the following month, U.S. Coast Guard investigators conducted an examination of the Caribbean Princess, during which some crew members continued to mislead them about the illegal dumping practice.

Investigators eventually determined that the ship had been making illegal discharges since 2005, the year after the ship was put into service. They also discovered a handful of other illegal practices taking place on the Caribbean Princess and four other ships — the Star Princess, Grand Princess, Coral Princess and Golden Princess. The practices included allowing salt water in to prevent alarms from sounding when too much oil was being discharged, and discharging oily bilge water when storage tanks overflowed in the engine room, according to the Justice Department.

Wanna bet this is a continuing wide-spread industry problem?

Carnival Cruise Lines owns the Princes Cruise Line and from another article on the current fine it notes:

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Carnival and several other cruise lines came under fire for a slew of environmental violation cases. In all, Carnival Corp. lines Carnival Cruise Line and Holland America Line were fined a combined $20 million, Royal Caribbean International was fined $27 million, and Norwegian Cruise Line another $1.5 million across multiple, similar lawsuits involving illegal oil dumping during that time period.

“I see this as a continuation of the same practices that have happened in the past,” said Miami-based maritime lawyer Jim Walker. “Princess just continued doing it from that time period until 2013, when this engineer blew the whistle on them.”

Read more here: www.miamiherald.com...=cpy

So add that to this already well know problem:

Daniel Rieger, a transport officer at German environment group Nabu, said: “Cruise companies create a picture of being a bright, clean and environmentally friendly tourism sector. But the opposite is true. One cruise ship emits as many air pollutants as five million cars going the same distance because these ships use heavy fuel that on land would have to be disposed of as hazardous waste.”

Link.

Here's a graphic from that source:



Returning to the Princess story, there is a website called Friends of the Earth that does a cruise line report card. Interestingly, they gave Princess a B for it's sewage treatment.



You can go to their website to see this years report and previous years.

Finally, Watch a Cruise Ship Pollute as Much as 13 Million Cars—in One Day

Pretty surprising stuff.

Everyday Joe Citizen is beat over the head about how they should be better people, and reduce their global impact and yadda yadda yadda. Then you see stuff like this, and places like China and India with horrible pollution problems, then you just roll your eyes at the absurdity in life.

a reply to: eXia7

Don't even get me started.

It's why I get so irritated with the whole GW debate. All that fighting about what is going on and how to address it, while we ignore the real pollution problems staring us right in the face.

I hope they dont just get fined and think that's adequate!

I read a good article today from Jeff Wise, which claims that we tend to punish but not CHANGE the instigator!

When something bad happens, we want to find out who’s responsible, and we want them to be punished. Only when guilt has been assigned and punishment extracted can we feel that justice has been done, and the case closed. Evolution has provided us with powerful, automatic brain circuitry for this purpose. When we see someone do wrong, we feel anger and outrage. This prompts us to extract punishment, which hopefully will prevent the evildoer from repeating his or her mistake in the future. The end result is that the social order is maintained.

Our world is truly precious and as much as i understand that "Big Wigs" are profit orientated, i would love to think that there is a conscious in there mind somewhere!

This is horrid. You know every cruise line prob does this to save money and line the pockets of their executives. They should be required to not operate for 6 months or something. 40 mil is just a drop in the ocean for them.

A fine is only a temporary setback...if you fine a ship, you should fine they ALL...and make them pay for the cleanup ON TOP of the fine.

I callz it "Collective Punishment"

Call me nuts--I'm just going to throw this out there, though:

In a vast ocean, what is THAT going to cause?

I'm not advocating the practice, so don't start with the hyperbole and angry accusations, I'm just asking a logical question--what lasting harm will that cause to the ocean? Are there chemicals in the treatment that is being released that is known to cause widespread or even localized death that affects things overall in that part of the ocean?

I'll be going on a cruise next summer--now I'll be keeping an eye on this stuff with camera ready, just in case I need to catch them in the same act.

You'd think that they'd be smart enough to only do it at night...

a reply to: Skywatcher2011

Punishing innocent people/boats/companies for the crimes of others is not any sort of justice in which I'd be interested in having served.

In fact, that's quite the opposite of justice.

Problem is, money is only a means to deter people who don't have a lot of it. How in any realm of reasoning is it thought to be effective as a punishment to make a company pay 40 million as a fine when they make 15 to 17 Billion dollars?

That's the issue that should tell you ( average joe and jane ) that you're just being pandered too and that no one in power gives a rats arse about the pollution, they just saw another way to make money off it. Ever wonder where the money for those 40 million dollar fines went? Would love to know.

Not to mention, I think it's criminal to pollute a body of water we all use, if someone was caught pouring this same stuff into our water supply, we'd have the arrested, how this is any different is beyond me, people eat seafood too...

I think they should be condemed if caught doing things like this, if you can get FIRED for having even weed in your system or showing up drunk and being fired, why aren't these companies fired from doing business with us?

Why do companies get warnings when individuals get fired?

I say shut them down till it's cleaned up. Multiple violations shut them down for good. If the fine is not oppressive they will always violate again. Any practice detrimental to business will be eliminated in favor of more efficient means of solving problems. Until then it's business as usual. I mean it's not like we can renew the oceans. You would think more eyes would be put on the situation to ensure proper procedures. I'll say another thing, if those in charge were criminaly Held responsible with long sentences hanging over their heads these problems would go away.

a reply to: Tranceopticalinclined

Exactly right. It states right in certain household products that if disposed of improperly you can be fined as well as imprisoned. Yet when we build floating cities that pollute with abandon its a slap in the wrist. Sickening.

I love how in the video she apologizes for their employees actions. I dont see the employees saving millions for proper disposal. Like the big wigs didnt know what was going on, laughable at best.

originally posted by: SlapMonkey
Call me nuts--I'm just going to throw this out there, though:

In a vast ocean, what is THAT going to cause?

I'm not advocating the practice, so don't start with the hyperbole and angry accusations, I'm just asking a logical question--what lasting harm will that cause to the ocean? Are there chemicals in the treatment that is being released that is known to cause widespread or even localized death that affects things overall in that part of the ocean?

I'll be going on a cruise next summer--now I'll be keeping an eye on this stuff with camera ready, just in case I need to catch them in the same act.

You'd think that they'd be smart enough to only do it at night...

If everybody did it all the time then it'd be even worse.

Just because the ocean is vast doesn't mean people should pollute it and say "well its so big, what does it matter"

A few years ago Princess was caught dumping waste in Alaskan waters. So they got slapped with something like a 40,000$ fine (or something like that). What did they do next? Yep, dumped the waste in Canadian waters before entering Alaskan waters!

A fine is not enough for such an ingrained behavior. Money does not stop or deter such actions. Somebody is telling them to do this and that individual must be held accountable. I don't care if it is the CEO somebody should lose their job for this continued action. Then they should be heavily monitored and regulated.

Seeing the photos, it is no wonder people get norovirus on cruises!

On top of that, most people fly down to catch the cruise ship.

The top dogs running the show should have the fines come out of their own pockets
We are told over and over again that they take on the most risk and deserve the top rewards for it
What really happens is they pass the cost onto the consumers and their employees

We need to make the top management have some skin in the game rather than get golden parachutes and lolly pops

originally posted by: eXia7
Just because the ocean is vast doesn't mean people should pollute it and say "well its so big, what does it matter"

(sorry for the late response...I avoid ATS generally on the weekends)

That's not at all what I was implying--in fact, I think that I specifically noted that I don't advocate the practice.

I asked a few specific questions, to which I got no answer; in effect, I was asking, "What does it matter?," but in a sincere way. How is it affecting the ocean, and if it is, how severely and for how long?

No one likes to answer those questions, they just like to get all save-the-whales and whatnot. I fully comprehend that, if everybody dumped their waste from cruise ships like this, that the problem would be compounded--that goes without saying. As Jake the Dog from "Adventure Time" once said, "That's obvious ... You don't have to say that out loud."

First place the ship under arrest (yes you can arrest a ship)
www.admiraltylawguide.com...
Arrest the captain he is top dog on the ship.
And let them both bail out.

i knew a couple caught pumping oil overboard from there boat.
they had a very small pump that pumped the oil out of the shaft seals.

the coast guard had a UV light system that can spot very small amounts of oil on the ocean.
when they spot oil they can follow it right home.