Two Maritime Companies Fined $ 1.75 Million For Discharging Oily Waste Into The Ocean

ship discharges oily water into the ocean — Image for representation purposes only

Two shipping companies have been found guilty by a U.S Court of illegally discharging oily water into the open ocean, logging in fake readings, and tampering with onboard equipment to get away with the crime.

MSC Shipmanagement LTD and Hong Kong Spirit Shipping and Trading LTD accepted the charges and pleaded guilty, after which they were fined a total of $1.75 million. The incident happened on board the ship MSC Samira III, which is owned by the latter.

The firms violated the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships from 2024 to 2025 by using various methods, in which the crew members were equally involved.

The crew of the engine department of the ship ordered the junior crew to deploy hoses and portable pumps for transferring oily bilge water into a tank containing sewage.

The untreated water was then released into the ocean without passing it through the oily-water separator, which is mandatory to make sure that the wastewater discharge does not contain more than 15 parts per million of oil.

Not only that, the senior crew ran clean water through the separator to trick the sensor into showing that the oil level was safe and well within limits while they continued to discharge the dirty water into the open ocean, threatening marine life and the entire marine ecosystem.

The charges were confirmed when the 2nd Engineer of the ship, Mikhail Tsurikov, admitted to being guilty of the crime and violating the Prevention of Ship Pollution Act. The sentence would be announced in court in the next hearing on September 10, 2026.

Additionally, false readings were mentioned in the ship’s record book to trick port inspection authorities.

However, officials became suspicious when the vessel berthed at the Philadelphia Port in January 2025, and the false readings were given to the Coast Guard during an inspection.

Captain of the U.S Coast Guard, Roberto Rivera, said that illegally discharging untreated oily water into the ocean can create a serious environmental risk and is against the international frameworks designed to keep waters safe and pollution-free.

Attorney David Metcalf said that the shipping firms repeatedly broke environmental laws, which represents their greed, for which they would be held responsible.

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