Safeguarding the Seas

Cruise Industry Environmental Record

Major cruise lines have been caught illegally dumping oil, garbage, and hazardous wastes into US waterways. Between 1999 and 2003, the industry paid more than $5 million in fines and three cruise lines were placed on five-years’ felony probation by the Department of Justice. The US General Accounting Office has found that, from 1993 to 1998 alone, cruise ships were involved in 104 confirmed cases of illegal dumping and have paid more than $30 million in fines.

In a particularly egregious case, Royal Caribbean Cruises pled guilty in 1999 to 21 felony counts and agreed to pay $18 million in fines for illegally dumping oily waste water and hazardous wastes in six US jurisdictions, lying to the Coast Guard, and falsifying waste discharge records.

Then, in April 2002 Carnival Corporation paid $18 million in fines and court-order environmental mitigation after it pled guilty to discharging oily waste into the sea from ship bilges by improperly using pollution prevention equipment and falsifying records. Carnival Cruise Line was place on five-years' probation.

However, in a petition filed with the U.S. District Court in Miami in summer 2003, Carnival's probation officer in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., accused the company of violating terms of its probation by filing 12 false audit reports and asked that Carnival be required to pay another community-service fine. Carnival officials said they fired three environmental-compliance employees responsible for the reports. But the company did not admit to violating its probation.

For a list of cruise industry violations and more recent incidents, click here.

Cruise ship engineers indicted on charges of hiding dumping. Read the article.

Carnival Fires Pollution Auditors Over False Compliance Reports. Read the article.