Carnival cruise ship. Wikimedia photo.
Carnival Corporation has agreed to pay $20 million after pleading guilty to polluting the oceans yet again. In 2016, the cruise line was fined $40 million and put on five years of probation for discharging oil-contaminated waste and trying to cover it up. However, on Monday, Carnival admitted to violating their probation terms.
According to CBS News, the cruise line committed six violations including, “dumping ‘gray water’ in prohibited places such Alaska's Glacier Bay National Park and knowingly allowing plastic to be discharged along with food waste in the Bahamas, which poses a severe threat to marine life.”
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Along with shelling out $20 million, the court agreement requires the company to pay for additional audits to check for violations, revamp compliance and training programs, improve reporting of environmental violations, and participate in better waste management. In addition, Carnival must create a new compliance plan by specific deadlines, which, if not met, will result in fines up to $10 million per day.
In a statement on Monday, Carnival claimed, “Our aspiration is to leave the places we touch even better than when we first arrived." Their track record begs to differ, but here’s hoping that the lofty goal will inspire them to stop dumping waste in the oceans.
cathy lister
December 24th, 2020
Leak detection will take like forever to solve.