"ROYAL CARIBBEAN TO PAY US$9 MILLION FOR POLLUTING.

Miami-based Royal Caribbean Cruises has admitted to routine dumping of oily waste into the sparkling Caribbean celebrated in its ads and agreed to pay the biggest pollution fines ever assessed against a cruise operator, reports CANA-Reuters (June 2, 1998):

. Royal Caribbean, the world's

second-largest cruise company, agreed in a pre-trial bargain with prosecutors to pay $9 million in fines and pleaded guilty to eight felony charges. The company said its crews routinely pumped oily bilge, kept dummy logs dubbed "fairytale" books by crew, and disassembled illegal sewage pipes bypassing cleaning devices as part of a conspiracy to hide the illegal practices;

. Most of the fines, US$8 million, will be paid in Puerto Rico to settle charges there, while US$1 million will be paid in Florida. A portion of the fines, US$1 million, will be contributed to a conservation fund, according to court papers. The company also agreed to five years probation and to implement a court-supervised program to improve its handling of oil wastes, chemicals and other pollutants;

. Royal Caribbean may be subject to other environmental charges, prosecutors and the company said. "These acts were totally inexcusable," Royal Caribbean President Jack Williams told a U.S. district court judge. "They should not have happened, and the corporation accepts full responsibility";

. Prosecutors said the dumping was detected in October 1994 by a U.S. Coast Guard plane in the Caribbean that identified a seven-mile oily wake behind Royal Caribbean's Nordic Empress. Follow-up investigations, often blocked by lying and witness tampering, uncovered fleet-wide use of secret bypass piping and dumping and led to 10 counts against the company;

. "When a company pollutes, lies and obstructs justice, it is no better than a common criminal," said Steve Solow, chief of the environmental crimes section at the Justice Department. "Indeed, some may consider Royal Caribbean's actions worse, since the company had the vast financial resources needed to easily comply with environmental laws but ignored them for one simple reason -- to save a few dollars." The prosecutors declined to say whether they were investigating other cruise operators in Miami, world headquarters of the thriving leisure cruise business.