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Cruise Line Is Fined $18 Million for Pollution

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Carnival Corp., the world’s biggest cruise line, pleaded guilty this month to falsifying records on dumping oily waste from six of its ships and will pay $18 million in fines and restitution.

In a plea agreement with the Justice Department, it admitted that its Sensation, Ecstasy, Fantasy, Imagination, Paradise and Tropicale ships illegally released the waste from bilge tanks from 1996 to 2001 in the Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico off ships sailing from Florida.

Carnival agreed to five years of court supervision. In a statement, it said it “accepts responsibility” and is “committed to environmental compliance.”

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In 1999 rival cruise line Royal Caribbean pleaded guilty to similar charges and paid an $18-million penalty.

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