A foreign ship company that dumped garbage barrels and thousands of gallons of bilge water into the ocean off the coast of California has been ordered to pay millions in fines, U.S. officials announced Tuesday.

Zeaborn Ship Management agreed to pay $2 million in penalties after discarding oily bilge water — a mix of filthy water, lubricants, grease, cleaning fluids and other contaminants — into the ocean, according to federal prosecutors.

“Unlawful oil discharges can cause significant harm to the marine environment,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Andrew Haden for the Southern District of California. “We will continue to safeguard our oceans by vigorous enforcement of environmental laws. Today’s case is a reflection of that commitment.”

The company, based in Hamburg, Germany and Singapore, admitted to dumping more than 7,500 gallons of bilge water from its vessel - called the Star Maia- at least four times between June and October 2022, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement. The contaminated material had not been processed through required pollution prevention equipment and was falsely recorded as having been properly and safely processed, prosecutors said.

The company also admitted to burning trash in barrels on Star Maia’s deck, including paper, plastics and oily rags, and dumping the barrels into the ocean, officials said. Zeaborn did not record the burning or disposal in the vessel’s garbage record book, which is legally required.

Zeaborn pleaded guilty to two felony violations of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships. The company’s chief engineer, Constancio Estuye, and captain, Alexander Parreno, also pleaded guilty for their roles in the environmental crimes, according to officials.

In addition to a $1.5 million fine and $500,000 community service payment directed toward the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the company will serve a four-year probation term, officials said. During that time, any vessels operated by Zeaborn that call on U.S. ports will be required to implement an environmental compliance plan, prosecutors said.

“Illegally dumping oily waste and garbage at sea poses a serious threat to the health and viability of the marine environment,” said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “This prosecution demonstrates our commitment to ensuring that those who violate environmental laws are held accountable for their criminal conduct.”

Other waterway polluters fined for trash dumping

Environmental pollution and illegal dumping of contaminated materials from ships is an ongoing problem throughout U.S. coastal waters.

In 2017, Princess Cruise Lines Ltd. paid what the U.S. Attorney’s Office dubbed a record-breaking penalty for crimes related to deliberate vessel pollution. The company was fined $40 million for illegally dumping oil-contaminated waste into the ocean and falsifying records to conceal the dumping, officials said. 

Earlier this year, a federal jury convicted a vessel chief engineer at Interunity Management for conspiracy to obstruct justice, obstruction of justice and failure to maintain an accurate oil record book. Oily bilge water was illegally dumped into the ocean without being properly processed from a vessel, officials said, and the discharges were not recorded as required by law.

The company had previously pleaded guilty to charges related to the incident and was hit with a $1.25 million penalty and four-year probation.

Individual litterers add up, too

In 2017, thousands of volunteers across the globe collected about 20 million pieces of trash in a single day from beaches and waterways. The most commonly collected item was a cigarette butt, according to nonprofit group Ocean Conservancy. That was followed by 1.7 million food wrappers and 1.6 million plastic water bottles. 

It was the first year where all of the ten most commonly collected items were made of plastic, the organization noted, a material that is incredibly harmful to marine life and can take hundreds of years to decompose. 

One study by the University of California Santa Barbara’s National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) found that 8 million metric tons of plastic trash end up in the oceans every year, harming marine animals and ecosystems. 

Dangers of marine pollution

As the ocean makes up two thirds of the planet, marine biologist Stephen Palumbi says on the MarineBio Conservation Society website that there is a strong connection between ocean health and human health. Toxins from the bottom of the oceanic food chain finds its way into people’s bodies, he added.

Until the early 1970s, companies could legally dump industrial, nuclear and other waste into oceans, according to the society. However, even after regulations were added, illegal dumping remains a widespread issue, and toxins can still spread far and wide  through ocean currents.

Incineration before disposal was commonplace in the 1970s to control toxic chemical waste, the agency noted. However, studies later found that smoke produced from burning toxic waste was full of hazardous chemicals that could get into the ocean. Burning waste at sea was banned in 1996.

The organization recommends alternatives to ocean dumping, like recycling, making less wasteful products and processing toxic waste into more benign material before disposing of it.