Cruise line hit with $20M fine after being caught dumping trash into ocean

Carnival Corp has been fined a sum of $20 million for polluting the ocean with trash… and it’s not the company’s first conviction. Princess Cruises, a Carnival subsidiary, has admitted to violating the terms of a 2017 settlement for improper waste disposal, while it was already on probation for a similar 2016 conviction.

A court filing submitted on Monday reports that Carnival released plastic and food waste into the ocean, failed to accurately record waste disposals, created false training records, and secretly examined ships to fix environmental-compliance issues before third-party inspections without reporting its findings to the inspectors, shares Business Insider.

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Carnival Corp has demonstrated a pattern of illegal behaviour in the past. The Miami Herald reports that in 2016, the company was hit with a $40 million fine and five years of probation, for illegal oil dumping and subsequent cover-up on five of its Princess Cruise Line ships.

This settlement followed a 1998 conviction for illegally dumping oil, a 2002 conviction for falsifying records for covering up the oil waste, and other crimes leading up to the 2016 conviction.

The most recent court settlement requires Carnival Corp to pay the $20 million fine, receive additional ship inspections, devote more resources to ensure compliance with the 2017 settlements, reduce the number of single-use plastic items on its ships, and establish teams to improve waste management. If the terms are not met, Carnival will have to pay additional penalties of $1 million to $10 million per day.