Princess Cruises has been ordered to pay the industry’s largest ever fine for illegally dumping waste.
The U.S. Department of Justice said the $40 million penalty imposed on Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Patricia A. Seitz in Miami is the heftiest ever for vessel pollution.
The court also recommended a $1 million award for a British engineer who uncovered the practice and reported it to the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency.
About $10 million of the fine will go toward programs to benefit marine conservation.
Federal prosecutors charged Princess late last year after a long investigation dating back to 2013.
The line was accused of employing a ‘magic pipe’ that bypassed the ship’s waste treatment system to dump raw sewage at sea and attempting to cover it up.
Princess had already admitted the offenses.
Investigators said the UK incident was not a one-off and US waters were also likely polluted by illegally dumping waste.
