Cruise Ships vs. the Environment: Their 10 Costliest Offenses

This fine was assessed against Louis Cruises after its ship the Sea Diamond ran aground off the coast of the Greek island of Santorini. Two of the vessel’s almost 1,200 passengers were missing after the accident and presumed dead. The ship was towed offshore and sank, leaking at least 300 tons of fuel and lubricants into the sea. Louis contested the fine. Nine crew members were subsequently convicted of various offenses relating to the accident by a Greek court.

Holland America’s ship the Ryndam poured a disputed amount of untreated or partially treated sewage into the harbor of Juneau, Alaska; the Coast Guard initially estimated about 40,000 gallons; the cruise line said 250 gallons; and the eventual plea deal settled on 20,000 gallons. The cruise line blamed human error for the incident, and its vice president of compliance programs was quoted as saying that, in any case, the ship’s wastewater treatment facilities produce water that is “as pure, if not purer, than drinking water.”

Holland America was required to pay a $1 million fine and $1 million in restitution after one of its ships, the Rotterdam, discharged oil-contaminated waste into Alaskan waters 13 times in a ten-day period in 1994. Investigators found that the vessel had a permanent pipe arrangement specifically for the purpose of illegal discharging.

In 1999, Alaska accused Royal Caribbean of seven counts of violating the state’s laws regarding hazardous waste and oil disposal. The company admitted discharging dry-cleaning fluid and other toxic chemicals, as well as oil-contaminated water into Alaskan seas.

One Royal Caribbean vessel, Sovereign of the Seas, was discovered pouring oily waste outside San Juan Harbor in Puerto Rico in the fall of 1994. In investigating the incident, authorities found that the ship regularly poured such waste overboard instead of processing it first, and that employees of that and four other Royal Caribbean ships regularly falsified record books and made false statements to the Coast Guard about their discharge practices. The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation received $1 million of the fine amount.

Carnival admitted that improper use of pollution prevention equipment on six of its ships resulted in numerous instances of oil-contaminated waste being emptied into the ocean from 1996 through 2001. The cruise line also pled guilty to falsifying records to hide the practice. The penalty was divided into a $9 million fine and $9 million in court-ordered community service to fund environmental projects in South Florida, the region most affected by the dumping.

Nine Royal Caribbean vessels were accused, and pled guilty, of discharging oil-contaminated waste and polluted waste water into the ocean and making false statements to the U.S. Coast Guard. The practices occurred through 1995 and in one case in 1998 and extended across six jurisdictions — Miami, New York City, Los Angeles, Anchorage, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Violations included repeated oil discharges in Alaska’s Inside Passage. Each jurisdiction received a specified amount of the settlement, ranging from $1 million for Puerto Rico to $6.5 million for Anchorage. Some $3.5 million of the total was earmarked for the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, with another $2.5 million going to the National Park Foundation.

When Carnival’s Princess line was fined $40 million in late 2016 for illegal dumping followed by attempts at a coverup (see No. 1), one of the terms of the settlement was a five-year monitoring period for environmental compliance applied to all the corporation’s cruise lines — including Holland America, Seabourn, and Cunard, among others. Last month, the company was found guilty of some 800 violations of their probation, including dumping of plastics. This additional penalty was assessed as a punishment.

Cunard’s Royal Viking Sun ran aground on a coral reef at the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba, which extends between Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and began leaking. All passengers were safely evacuated, but the reef was damaged and Egyptian authorities temporarily seized the vessel.

Princess admitted to seven felony charges of pollution, including dumping 4,227 gallons of oil-contaminated waste off the British coast in 2013, and subsequently falsifying logs to cover up the dumping. Eight Carnival Corporation subsidiaries, including Princess, are being audited for a five-year period by a court-supervised Environmental Compliance Program.