Cargo Business Newswire

Monday, April 11, 2016

Shipping company fined nearly $1 million for dumping bilge water

A South Korean shipping company was fined nearly $1 million after it dumped polluted water into the ocean and then tried to cover it up.

Doorae Shipping Co. is the owner of the oil tanker B. Sky, which was several hundred miles off the coast of Hawaii in February when it began discharging its oily bilge water into the ocean.

On Tuesday, the company was fined $950,000 after it pleaded guilty to failing to accurately record the dumping and for making false statements to the U.S. Coast Guard.

"I think it's important that we send a message in

cases like this because they don't come up often. We don't catch them often," said Ken Sorenson, assistant U.S. Attorney.

"So obviously, when you do catch one and you catch them cold like we did here, you want the sanction to be painful and this indeed was a painful sanction."

According to the U.S. Attorney's office, $200,000 of the fine will go to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to be used to protect Hawaii's coral reefs.

For more of the Hawaii News Now story: www.hawaiinewsnow.com