Princess Cruise Lines Fined $40 Million for Water Pollution.

In the ‘Eco Friendly’ age we now live in the following news will come as a shock to some, and leave a bitter taste in the mouth of others I would imagine.

Princess Cruise Lines has been sentenced to pay a US$40 million penalty related to illegal dumping overboard of oil-contaminated waste and falsification of official logs to conceal the dumps, the US Department of Justice has announced. And it says this is the “largest-ever fine for crimes involving deliberate vessel pollution”.

The sentence has been imposed by a US District Judge in Miami, who also ordered that US$1 million be awarded to a British engineer, who first reported the illegal dumps.

The newly hired engineer on Caribbean Princess reported that a so-called ‘magic pipe’ had been used on 23 August 2013 to illegally dump 4,227 gallons of oily waste 23 miles off the coast of England without the use of required pollution prevention equipment. The evidence gathered by the engineer, including photographs of the ‘magic pipe’, led to an inspection of the cruise ship both in England and when it reached New York on 14 September 2013.

The company agreed to plead guilty to seven felony charges of illegally dumping and falsifying official logs in order to hide the pollution, officials said the pollution also occurred in U.S. waters.

The case against Princess included illegal practices which were found to have taken place on five Princess ships. The Caribbean Princess is accused of illegally dumping waste since 2005 while the Star Princess, Grand Princess, Coral Princess and Golden Princess were also found to have used illegal means to pollute the ocean.

What do you think of that?

I’d love to know your thoughts.

Bye for now.