A New Zealand ferry company was fined with the amount of NZ $380,000 because the company’s ferry “City Cat” grounded on April 2017; The fine was also issued because the company failed to ensure the safety of the passengers’ and other sea users.
Swedish ferry operator Stena Line pleaded guilty to breaching Health and Safety at Work Act (1974) for failing to adequately assess risks in connection to a serious employee injury at the company’s port terminal in Birkenhead, Wirral, UK, in September 2017.
A federal grand jury in Oakland charged two shipping companies and a First Assistant Engineer with failing to maintain an Oil Record Book for bilge water discharges into the sea and with obstruction of justice, the US Department of Justice announced.
The US Department of Justice announced the entry of a judgment of forfeiture regarding the M/V Wise Honest, a 17,061-ton, single-hull bulk carrier ship registered in North Korea. The Department said that Wise Honest was used to illicitly ship coal from North Korea and to deliver heavy machinery back to the N. Korea.
A trawler has been arrested in Ghanaian waters after having been caught on illegally fishing at least 13.9 tonnes of small pelagic fish in a single day, using illegal nets, and has been ordered to pay a fine of $1 million by the Ghanaian authorities.
The US Department of Justice fined two shipping companies, incorporated in Liberia, for failing to notify the USCG of a hazardous condition on one of their vessels and to violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS) by presenting false documents to the Coast Guard that covered up vessel oil pollution.
The Norwegian Maritime Authority charged a Singapore company with NOK 7 million for violating the Pollution and Criminal Code after it attempted to sail the ship Harrier for illegal scrapping. The fine has already been paid since Wirana Shipping CPL had provided financial security for the ship as decided by the Oslo District Court when the ship was to sail from Norway in July 2018.
The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) withdrew bunker craft operator licence of Inter-Pacific Petroleum Pte Ltd, beginning from 15 October 2019. Therefore, Inter-Pacific is not allowed to operate as a bunker craft operator in the Port of Singapore.
Mr. George A. Gaitas, Attorney and Partner, Gaitas & Chalos, P.C, shares his predictions regarding what owners should expect in the US in the enforcement of MARPOL Annex VI regulations after Jan 1st of 2020 and, specifically, whether the US will widely implement criminal sanctions as it has done with enforcement of Annex I.
The US Department of Justice published a statement that Hyundai Construction Equipment Americas Inc. (HCEA) and Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd (HHI) agreed to pay a $47 million civil penalty for violating Title II of the Clean Air Act.
