You have probably heard of Princess Cruise Lines. However, you probably did not know they will plead guilty to 7 charges and pay a $40 million fine for deliberate pollution of the ocean, the largest penalty for deliberate pollution ever. Princess is owned by the Carnival Corporation which is the largest cruise company in the world.
The cruise line dumped contaminates including waste and oil from its ships for nearly a decade. The improper disposal of the waste seems to be an attempt for the company to cut costs. One particular ship, the Caribbean Princess, used a "magic pipe" which allowed the ship to illegally discharge waste.
The Assistant Attorney General said in a statement, “It reflects poorly on Princess’s culture and management. This is a company that knew better and should have done better. Hopefully the outcome of this case has the potential not just to chart a new course for this company, but for other companies as well.”
The Justice Department said that the ship's chief engineer and senior first engineer were responsible for the trouble. The two removed the "magic pipe" and asked employees to lie to the authorities in an attempt to cover up what they had done.
British investigators determined that the practices had been going on since 2005 which was only a year after the ship started service. The investigators also discovered countless other polluting practices. These included allowing salt water in to keep alarms from sounding after too much oil was ejected and discharging water contaminated with food and oil into the ocean. Nearly 4,000 gallons of polluted water had been discharged off the English coast.
Princess blamed employees for the pollution claiming they were unaware of the practices. The cruise line had no written procedure for how to deal with contaminated water. The company promises to adopt more environmentally friendly practices in the future.
