By AVA TURNQUEST
Tribune Chief Reporter
aturnquest@tribunemedia.net
CARNIVAL vessels have submitted three reports to maritime authorities in the current 2018/2019 fiscal year, The Tribune has been told.
Those reports were “inconsequential”, according to sources close to the matter, who said it concerned an accidental oil spill in port, loss of anchor and chain, and a golf ball being thrown overboard.
The oil spill was “miniscule” - reportedly less than a quarter of a gallon, this newspaper was told.
The current fiscal year began in June 2018.
Government officials have launched an investigation after reports that the cruise giant’s ships unlawfully dumped sewage and food waste in Bahamian waters in 2017.
Yesterday, the cruise line maintained the dumping was not intentional and the result of human error.
“We look forward to meeting with officials there,” said Roger Frizzell, Carnival Corporation chief communications officer and senior vice president of corporate communications.
“This is a regrettable situation of human error, not intentional. While we properly released treated discharge 12 miles from land — more than four times further than required by international law — we failed to recognise the boundaries of the archipelago economic zones that exists.”
He continued: “As a result, we have instituted additional training, oversight and tools for our ship personnel to aid them in properly diagnosing and navigating archipelago zones and boundaries. There is no negative impact to marine life or humans resulting from these actions.”
Carnival ships dumped hundreds of thousands of gallons of treated sewage and more than 8,000 gallons of food waste in 2017, according to a US court-mandated report.
In so doing, the corporation violated the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL), which specifies how food waste and sewage must be disposed.
The Bahamas signed the MARPOL Annex IV – the clause defining international sewage discharge requirements – in late 2017.
The US court report is part of a five-year term of probation that was applied after Carnival pleaded guilty to seven felony counts related to vessel pollution and efforts to conceal that pollution, one count of conspiracy, four counts of failure to maintain accurate records and two counts of obstruction of justice, in 2016.
The probation terms require all ships from eight Carnival cruise lines to participate in a supervised environmental compliance programme.
The company is also required to retain an outside independent third-party auditor and to fund a court-appointed monitor (CAM).
Mr Frizzell said yesterday: “We realise any infraction is one too many. The environment and sustainability has been and remains a top priority for the company. We have an obligation to our company, our guests and the more than 700 destinations we visit around the world to protect the environment in which we live, work and travel. We take these issues very seriously and we are vigorously addressing them.”
The government has requested the CAM report for 2018; however, The Tribune was told the document has not yet been released by the court.
Ships’ records are examined by port state control officers to identify instances of possible unreported maritime pollution.
The Bahamas Maritime Authority reported in February that it recorded the lowest number of annual detentions for 2018 following port state control (PSC) inspections. Only 24 ships were detained in 2018, according to BMA Chair J Denise Lewis-Johnson.
Comments
John 5 years ago
Yea right... training on how to dump shyt and not get caught ay... Have a safe conch salad eating weekend Bahamians and agents, yyc
John 5 years ago
Still waiting on the State Department (CIA) to give its take on Carnival and other Americans companies dumping shit in Bahamian waters! Millions of gallons of shit annually. After all if the state department can issue travel advisories for fights that happen at Arawak Cay and elsewhere it surely must have an opinion on these Billion Dollar Companies dumping shit illegally in Bahamian waters. And don’t forget Red Lobster is Bahamian Lobster still!
birdiestrachan 5 years ago
How interesting that carnival would be more concern about dumping in the Bahamas
where there are no regulations . and not concerned about the USA .The peoples time voters and doc believe every word. they say.
ThisIsOurs 5 years ago
"This is a regrettable situation of human error"
This is not human error:
Time.com Judge Patricia Seitz said Wednesday that she’ll make a decision in June, and she wants company chairman Micky Arison and president Donald Arnold to attend that hearing.
The people at the top are treating this as a gnat,” Seitz said. “If I could, I would give all the members of the executive committee a visit to the detention center for a couple of days. It’s amazing how that helps people come to focus on reality.
An email from Carnival’s German-based cruise line AIDA Cruises said, “*It would be really important to go onboard on August 12 for one week in order to have time to manage issues before the audits and AVOID findings.*
They said a similar email from Carnival’s Seattle-based Holland America Line mentioned “prevent audit findings” as a goal in early 2018.
The court filings said the monitor found that Carnival and its subsidiaries repeatedly falsified records, as recently as September 2018, when an engineer on Holland America’s Westerdam ship falsified maintenance records to make it appear he had cleaned and tested equipment when he had not
concerned799 5 years ago
Its clear the whole industry is a ruse to avoid regulation, and labour and environmental standards which mean anything. Consequently, I would suggest you apply to run a land based hotel in the Bahamas whereby it won't be necessary for everyone to worry about how to avoid regulations, create false records and to deal with court orders etc. I think this is a solution that will work better for all concerned.
Well_mudda_take_sic 4 years, 12 months ago
If there's one foreign company to never be trusted, no matter what, it's Carnival. And if Minnis, Symonette, D'Aguilar and Bethel refuse to accept that well-evidenced fact, then they should each be made to swim for several hours a week in a pond of raw sewerage pumped from the holding tanks of any one of Carnival's ships. This weekly swimming routine for Minnis, Symonette, D'Aguilar and Bethel should continue until the Bahamian people receive adequate compensation for the harm caused to their environment by Carnival's illegal dumping of untreated sewerage and other contaminants in our waters over many decades.
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