The large, green generators in the engine room of a 292-foot ship moored to a pier in San Francisco grind to life, filling the enclosed space with machine-produced roar. Coast Guard inspectors take a few slow laps around the room looking for malfunctions, leaks, fire risks and safety hazards.
During the 3rd annual SAFETY4SEA forum held in Athens in October 2012, George A.Gaitas, Attorney at Law in Houston Texas Chalos & Co. gave a very interesting speech on how a shipping company may get caught in a whistleblower situation and end up paying heavy fines and/or other penalties without ever committing an actual oil pollution. More than a decade has passed since the United States Department of Justice launched a vigorous campaign to enforce the observance of MARPOL 73/78 Annex I regulations by foreign ships calling at U.S. ports. Some ten years later, one would think that ship owners and ship managers would have caught-on, and found ways to effectively deal with it. Unfortunately it hasn’t worked out that way.
Oil in Our Waters is a 22-minute documentary about the illegal dumping of oil from ships. This film explores the extent of the problem, the impact of oil on the marine environment, the creation of MARPOL, the rewards for whistleblowers, and the penalties faced by polluters caught in the United States.
Source: Marine Defenders
Two German shipping companies pleaded guilty in early November in federal court in Houston to criminal charges that they concealed the illegal dumping of oil at sea from U.S. Coast Guard inspectors. The operator and owner of the commercial cargo vessel MV Susan K, will pay a $1.2 million dollar criminal penalty, $200,000 of which will go to the National Marine Sanctuaries Fund as a community service payment for projects aimed at preserving and restoring the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary located off the Texas coast. As a condition of probation, all vessels owned or operated by the defendants will be prohibited from entering U.S. ports or waters for five years.
A Greek shipping company must pay the US federal government $300,000 after admitting that one of its vessels discharged waste oil into the Atlantic Ocean, U.S. Attorney Donald J. Cazayoux Jr. announced Wednesday in Baton Rouge. “The oceans must be protected from shipping companies that look to cut corners by dumping waste improperly,” said Ivan Vikin, special agent-in-charge of the EPA’s criminal enforcement program in Louisiana.
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Officer of the Watch 