Author: peterjang73

Princess Cruise Lines will pay a $40 million fine for “deliberate pollution of the seas and intentional acts to cover it up,” according to the Department of Justice, which calls it “the largest-ever criminal penalty involving deliberate vessel pollution.”

The California-based cruise operator also agreed to plead guilty to seven felony charges over illegal practices on five ships dating back, in at least one case, to 2005.

The Justice Department said in a statement that Princess illegally dumped contaminated waste and oil from its Caribbean Princess ship for eight years — a practice that was exposed by a whistleblowing engineer in 2013.

The engineer quit his job over the dumping when the ship docked in the U.K. and alerted British authorities, who notified the U.S. Coast Guard. He said other engineers were using a device called a “magic pipe” to bypass the ship’s water treatment system and unload oily waste into the ocean.

Then, other engineers attempted to hide the evidence of illegal dumping before British investigators could board the ship, according to the Justice Department. The statement read: “The chief engineer and senior first engineer ordered a cover-up, including removal of the magic pipe and directing subordinates to lie.” This continued during a subsequent investigation led by the U.S. Coast Guard.

The Justice Department said the deliberate pollution was likely an attempt to cut costs: “The chief engineer that ordered the dumping off the coast of England told subordinate engineers that it cost too much to properly offload the waste in ports and that the shore-side superintendent who he reported to would not want to pay the expense.”

In addition to the illegal waste dumping from the Caribbean Princess, the Department of Justice says it uncovered illegal practices on four other Princess ships:

• “One practice was to open a salt water valve when bilge waste was being processed by the oily water separator and oil content monitor. The purpose was to prevent the oil content monitor from otherwise alarming and stopping the overboard discharge.”
• “The second practice involved discharges of oily bilge water originating from the overflow of graywater tanks into the machinery space bilges. This waste was pumped back into the graywater system rather than being processed as oily bilge waste.”

Some discharges likely took place within U.S. waters, the Justice Department says.

“The pollution in this case was the result of more than just bad actors on one ship,” Assistant Attorney General John C. Cruden says. “It reflects very poorly on Princess’s culture and management.”

In a statement to NPR, Princess Cruises says it is “extremely disappointed about the inexcusable actions of our employees.” It says it launched an internal investigation in 2013. And “although we had policies and procedures in place, it became apparent they were not fully effective,” the statement reads. “We are very sorry that this happened and have taken additional steps to ensure we meet or exceed all environmental requirements.

Princess Cruises is a subsidiary of Miami-based Carnival Corp., and the plea agreement requires ships from eight of Carnival’s companies to submit to court-supervised monitoring of environmental compliance for the next five years.

Nearly 2,000 people in New Zealand are gearing up to spread a little joy by giving a gift to a stranger.

They’re taking part in a Secret Santa gift exchange run by the country’s postal service. When they sign up, participants include their Twitter handle. Then, a complete stranger is assigned to give them a present, using only their Tweets to do a little sleuthing and figure out what they might like.

Part of the appeal is likely the relative privacy of the exchange: Participants send their gifts to a “Santa Storehouse” run by the New Zealand Post, rather than give out their addresses. And if people don’t send a gift for the exchange, the gift meant for them will instead be donated to charity.

Podcaster and giant pumpkin grower Sam Elton-Walter started the exchange in 2010. During a conversation about office gift swaps, he came up with the idea to match people up on Twitter.

It grew from 200 people the first time to more than 800 the third time. “I had the feeling that it was on the brink of out growing myself, and I wanted to have more time to spend with pumpkin related activities,” Elton-Walter wrote in a blog post.

He put out a call on Twitter in search of someone to take over the project, and the New Zealand Post stepped up.

The #nzsecretsanta hashtag is full of holiday cheer and tips for gift-giving. For example, these two, who are just happy to participate:

People are also dropping hints about their interests, like these folks:

Over the past few years, it’s clear that many of the participants have been genuinely touched by the thoughtfulness of the person they’ve never met. A conservationist named Dannie posted a video last year showing the moment she unwrapped her present:

She appears to get teary-eyed at times while opening a box brimming with personalized items, including a Star Wars bobble head, a set of glow-in-the-dark penguins, and a website set up to raise money for yellow-eyed penguins — a particular passion of hers.

“The fact that it can be a stranger on the Internet and that they can do this for you — with all these things that are the things that I like or am interested in or passionate about, and especially this fundraiser — is just amazing,” Dannie says at the end of the video.

Others over the years have told Elton-Walter about the deep personal significance of the exchange.

“I had a couple of people say a big thank you to me because for whatever reason … they said ‘this is the only gift I got at Christmastime and you made my Christmas’,” he said, as The New Zealand Herald reported.

The New Zealand Post really goes the extra mile for the holidays — it will also let kids make and send digital postcards to Santa, which then receive a personalized response from the jolly old elf “himself.”