Cruise line which stops in Vancouver fined $40-million US for secret pollution
Posted December 2, 2016 2:19 pm.
Last Updated December 2, 2016 3:11 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – You’ve probably seen Princess Cruise Lines ships sitting in our harbour.
But the line has now been fined $40-million after pleading guilty to illegally dumping oil off the coast of England and the states, and now a local environmental group wants questions asked and answered about the company’s behaviour locally.
In this case, the cruise line has admitted that at least one of its vessels was modified to allow for secret and illegal oil dumping, using what’s called a “magic pipe.”
Karen Wristen with the environmental group Living Oceans wants the full fleet inspected to see if other ships in the line — including ones which come through Vancouver — have similar pipes installed.
“We need to study what happened with the vessel involved in this prosecution and check all of the other vessels in the line to see if they have similar installations installed,” says Wristen.
It’s unclear if the ship involved in this case has ever come to Vancouver — both the Port and Princess Cruise Lines have been asked for that information.
“I think there’s definitely a need to start asking some questions here about what’s going on with the cruise ship line,” says Wristen. “But this also brings into question the ship inspection regime which applies to these vessels.”
NEWS 1130 has contacted the federal government to get information about the cruise line’s record here in Canada.
