The Cruise Industry’s History of Environmental Violations
The cruise industry has a long history of environmental violations. With the increases in the number and size of cruise ships starting in the 1990s we have also seen a corresponding increase in the number and size of the cruise industry’s violations. Cruise companies have been fined for everything from illegal dumping of toxic chemicals, sewage, plastics, and oil into our oceans, as well as violating local port regulations, and even continuing to violate federal and state laws while under court-ordered probation.
The chart below lists some of the worst violations the cruise industry has committed over the past 30 years. Ships from most major cruise lines on our Cruise Report Card including Carnival Corp., Royal Caribbean, MSC Cruises, and Norwegian Cruises have been prosecuted and fined for failure to follow environmental regulations designed to protect coastal communities, cruise ship passengers, and vulnerable ocean ecosystems.
| Cruise line | Vessel(s) | Violation Year | Violation Type | Description | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carnival Corporation | N/A | 2021 | Probation violation | Carnival Corp. (Princess) plead guilty to a second violation of its probation imposed as a result of its 2016 criminal conviction for environmental crimes because it failed to establish and maintain an independent internal investigative office. | $1 million |
| Carnival Corporation | Many | 2019 | Probation violation; Discharge of plastics | Carnival Corp. was fined $20 million for violating its probation for environmental offenses that led to a $40 million fine in 2016. The company logged 800 offenses of its conditions of probation in the first year — many of these (such as discharging plastics) were even worse than the original offenses leading to the $40 million fine. Violations included the Holland America Westerdam dumping approximately 22,500 gallons of untreated graywater into Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska. Ultimately, Carnival Corp. cruise ships committed thousands of additional violations between 2017 and 2022 while on federal criminal probation. | $20 million |
| Carnival Corporation (Princess Cruises) | Many | 2016 | Oil dumping; Falsifying records | In 2016, Princess Cruises and its parent company Carnival Corp. plead guilty to seven felony charges and paid a $40 million penalty for polluting the ocean with waste and then trying to cover it up. It was charged for illegally dumping 4,227 gallons of oily waste 23 miles off the coast of Britain on Aug. 23, 2013. The company also falsified official logs in order to hide the pollution. Officials said the pollution also occurred in U.S. waters. Eight Carnival subsidiaries will be audited for five years by a court-supervised Environmental Compliance Program. The whistleblower engineer will be paid $1 million. | $40 million |
| MSC Cruises | Magnifica | 2015 | Garbage bags overboard | The complaint was made by one of the ship’s passengers on board during the trip in late 2013. The complaint was registered with the Public Ministry of Paraná. After analysis of the material that was dumped it was found that there were testimonial and documentary evidence of irregularities carried out by the ship. | $2.5 million |
| Carnival Corporation (Princess Cruises) | Dawn Princess | 2007 | Whale strike | The cruise line agreed to a plea bargain where it paid a fine of $200,000 and restitution of $550,000 after criminal charges were filed. The company was charged with failing to operate at a slow, safe speed while near humpback whales and in 2001 hit and killed a humpback. | $750,000 |
| Holland America | Ryndam (retired) | 2004 | Sewage discharge | Holland America Line agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor in its discharge of sewage into Juneau Harbor in August 2002 and to pay a $200,000 fine, pay $500,000 in restitution, and spend $1.3 million to improve its ship’s handling of waste. | $2 million |
| Carnival Cruises | Many | 2002 | Oil dumping | Carnival Corporation pled guilty to numerous occasions from 1996 through 2001 that it discharged oily waste into the sea from their bilges by improperly using pollution prevention equipment. In addition, the company falsified the Oil Record Books in order to conceal its practices. | $18 million and 5-year probation |
| Norwegian | Many | 2002 | Oil dumping | Norwegian Cruise Line pled guilty on numerous occasions from 1997 through April 2000 that it routinely circumvented the oily water separator, allowing oily bilge to be discharged directly into the sea. The company was given a lenient sentence because it reported its practices to the US Department of Justice. | $1.5 million |
| Royal Caribbean | Many | 2000 | Discharge of toxic chemicals; Oil dumping | State of Alaska charged Royal Caribbean in August 1999 for seven counts of violating state laws governing oil and hazardous waste disposal. In January 2000, Royal Caribbean pled guilty to dumping toxic chemicals (including dry-cleaning fluid) and oil-contaminated water into the state’s waters. | $3.5 million |
| Royal Caribbean | Many | 1999 | Oil dumping; Discharge of hazardous waste; Falsifying records | Royal Caribbean pled guilty in six jurisdictions to charges of fleet wide practices of discharging oil-contaminated waste, regularly and routinely discharging wastewater contaminated by pollutants through its ships’ graywater systems without a permit, and making false material statements to the Coast Guard. These practices occurred fleet wide into 1995 and occurred on one ship as late as 1998. Among the violations supporting this guilty plea were repeated oil discharges from the Nordic Prince into the waters of Alaska’s Inside Passage in 1994. | $18 million and 5-year probation |
| Royal Caribbean | Nordic Empress (retired) | 1998 | Oil dumping; Falsifying records | Royal Caribbean’s ship was observed and filmed by US Coast Guard aircraft discharging oil while en route to Miami, FL. The company pled guilty to the willful presentation of a false oil record book for the ship during a US Coast Guard investigation. In addition, investigations revealed that the ship had been fitted with a bypass pipe (‘magic pipe’) allowing employees to discharge bilge waste from the ship without first processing it through an oily water separator. | $1 million |
| Royal Caribbean | 5 cruise ships | 1998 | Oil dumping; Falsifying records | Sovereign of the Seas, Monarch of the Seas, Song of America (retired), Nordic Prince (retired), Nordic Empress (retired). After Sovereign of the Seas was found discharging oily bilge waste approximately 8-12 miles from San Juan Harbor, PR on October 25, 1994, an investigation found that the ship’s engineers routinely discharged oily waste overboard instead of processing it through the ship’s oily water separator. In addition, employees on all five ships falsified oil record books and made false statements to the Coast Guard to conceal illegal discharge practices. | $8 million ($1 million designated to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation) and 5-year probation |
| Holland America | Rotterdam | 1998 | Oil dumping | In 1994, the Rotterdam discharged polluted waste 13 times in 10 days into Alaskan waters. The ship had fixed, permanent piping that allowed oily waste to be discharged directly overboard, bypassing the ship’s oily water separator. (Reported by an Assistant Engineer–as a whistleblower he was awarded $500,000) | $2 million and 5-year probation |
| Norwegian | Leeward (retired) | 1994 | Damage to reef | The cruise ship damaged the Great Mayan Reef near Cozumel (more than 4400 square feet was shaved off — 80% destroyed) | $1 million |
| Cunard Cruises | Royal Viking Sun (retired) | 1996 | Damage to reef | Stuck coral reef at the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba. | $23.5 million |
| Princess Cruises | Regal Princess | 1993 | Plastic bag dumping | Princess Cruises agrees to a fine for dumping more than 20 garbage filled plastic bags off the Florida Keys. Passengers videotape offense and receive half of the fine. | $500,000 |