National Fish And Wildlife Foundation News

The U.S. government's oceans and waterways agency will provide $30 million to improve coastal resilience, officials said, aiming to reduce the impacts of worsening storms, flooding and rising seas in nearly half of U.S. states.Grants through the program are designed to restore or expand coastal wetlands, dunes, reefs, mangroves and barrier islands that are key to coastal protection, said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in an announcement.Coastlines worldwide are being damaged or threatened by more extreme and destructive weather…

$1 Million Will Go to Projects that Support Cleanup of Marine Pollution, Preservation of Aquatic Life, and Restoration of Shorelines around Newark Bay.A shipping company based in Italy today admitted discharging oily waste and other pollutants into the sea and then lying about it, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito and Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Bossert Clark announced.The company, d’Amico Shipping Italia S.p.A., pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton in Newark federal court to an information charging it with violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships.

The German shipping companies Briese Schiffahrts GmbH & Co. KG and Briese Schiffahrts GmbH & Co. KG MS “Extum,” who owned and operated the cargo ship M/V BBC Magellan, pleaded guilty today to failure to maintain an accurate oil record book, in violation of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships and tampering with witnesses by persuading them to provide false statements to the U.S. Coast Guard concerning a bypass hose on the vessel that was being used to discharge oil into the sea. The two companies were sentenced to pay a total of $1.25 million in fines and a $250,000 community service payment to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to fund projects that enhance coastal habitats of the Gulf of Mexico and bolster priority fish and wildlife populations.

Dauelsberg GmbH & Co. KG, a German company, was sentenced in U.S. federal court June 3 to pay a total of $750,000 in fines and community service payments for violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships by intentionally discharging 1,780 gallons of oily water into the sea off the coast of Alaska and then presenting false records to the U.S. Coast Guard. Herm. Dauelsberg was also ordered to implement a comprehensive Environmental Compliance Plan and was placed on probation for three years. During the term of probation, Herm. Dauelsberg will be subject to a heightened level of scrutiny, including warrantless searches of its vessels and places of business based upon a reasonable suspicion that it is violating the law. Of the total payment, Herm.

Chief U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake sentenced Noly Torato Vidad of the Philippines, the Chief Engineer of the cargo vessel M/V Selene Leader, to eight months in prison, followed by one year of supervised release, for obstruction of justice and violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS). The sentence was announced by U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein; Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division John C. Cruden; and Coast Guard Captain Kevin Kiefer, Captain of the Port of Baltimore.

The Hachiuma Steamship Co., LTD pleaded guilty January 30 to violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS), arising from the failure to maintain an accurate oil record book concerning the illegal disposal of oil residue and bilge water overboard the cargo vessel M/V Selene Leader. Chief U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake sentenced Hachiuma Steamship to pay $1.8 million, and placed it on probation for three years during which it is to develop an environmental compliance program. The plea and sentence were announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division John C. Cruden; and Coast Guard Captain Kevin Kiefer, Captain of the Port of Baltimore.

Company agrees to pay $1.2 million penalty; $300,000, will fund Long Island Sound projects. Singapore-based Odfjell Asia II Pte Ltd and one of its senior crew members pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court in Hartford, Conn., for violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS), announced Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division Robert G. Dreher, United States Attorney Deirdre M. Daly and Rear Admiral Daniel B. Abel, Commander of the First Coast Guard District in Boston.

Halliburton Energy Services Inc. has agreed to plead guilty to destroying evidence in connection with the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the Department of Justice announced today. A criminal information charging Halliburton with one count of destruction of evidence was filed today in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Louisiana. Halliburton has signed a cooperation and guilty plea agreement with the government in which Halliburton has agreed to plead guilty and admit its criminal conduct. As part of the plea agreement, Halliburton has further agreed, subject to the court’s approval, to pay the maximum-available statutory fine, to be subject to three years of probation and to continue its cooperation in the government’s ongoing criminal investigation.

Two shipping firms based in Germany and Cyprus were sentenced today in federal court in Newark, N.J., to pay a $10.4 million penalty for felony obstruction of justice charges and violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships related to the deliberate concealment of vessel pollution from four ships that visited ports in New Jersey, Delaware and Northern California, the U.S. Attorney’s Offices in New Jersey and Delaware, the U.S. Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division and the U.S. Coast Guard announced. Columbia Shipmanagement (Deutschland) GmbH (CSM-D), a German corporation, and Columbia Shipmanagement Ltd.

BP says it is supporting economic and environmental efforts in the Gulf of Mexico and is committing huge funding. To date, BP has spent over $14 billion in response and clean-up costs and have paid $9.9 billion in claims, advances and settlements to individuals, businesses and governments. The company has also committed to provide up to $1 billion to fund early restoration projects. In 2011, BP committed $174 million to be distributed to Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida over a three-year period to promote tourism, seafood marketing and testing. This is in addition to the $87 million in tourism grants provided to the states by BP in 2010.

Transocean pleads guilty, sentenced to pay $400-million in penalties for criminal conduct leading to the disaster. Transocean Deepwater Inc. has pleaded guilty to a violation of the Clean Water Act (CWA) for its illegal conduct leading to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, and was sentenced to pay $400 million in criminal fines and penalties, Attorney General Holder announced. In total, the amount of fines and other criminal penalties imposed on Transocean are the second-largest environmental crime recovery in U.S. history – following the historic $4 billion criminal sentence imposed on BP Exploration and Production Inc. in connection with the same disaster.

Transocean Ltd. (NYSE: RIG) (SIX: RIGN) announced that it has reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to resolve certain outstanding civil and potential criminal claims against the company arising from the April 20, 2010, accident involving the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico. As part of this resolution, a Transocean subsidiary has agreed to plead guilty to one misdemeanor violation of the Clean Water Act (CWA) for negligent discharge of oil into the Gulf of Mexico and pay $1.4 billion in fines, recoveries and penalties, excluding interest. This resolution will result in the Department of Justice concluding its criminal investigation of Transocean and settling its claims for civil penalties against the company relating to the spill from BP's Macondo well.

Odysea Carriers, S.A., an Athens, Greece-based shipping firm to pay $1.2 million fine & placed on three years probation. Odysea Carriers pleaded guilty recently before a federal court in New Orleans to illegally discharging oily waste into the ocean and comvering up the illegal actions. The charges stem from an investigation into the actions of the M/V Polyneos, a 37,623 gross ton ocean-going bulk carrier owned by Odysea, which docked at the Port of New Orleans on Oct. 12, 2011. According to court records, engine room crew members used a hose to pump the contents of the ship's bilge tank, bilge oil tank and sludge tank directly overboard since at least June 8, 2011. According to a U.S.

WASHINGTON – Ilios Shipping Company S.A. was sentenced today in federal court in New Orleans for violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS) and obstruction of justice, announced Assistant Attorney General Ignacia S. Moreno and Jim Letten, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Ilios operated the M/V Agios Emilianos, a 738-foot, 36,573 ton bulk carrier cargo ship which hauled grain from New Orleans to various ports around the world. According to the plea agreement…

Company to Pay More Than $1 Million for Dumping Oily Waste into Hawaiian Waters, Obstruction of Justice and Covering up Oil Pollution. Keoje Marine Co. Ltd. and two engineers from the M/T Keoje Tiger pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court in Honolulu to environmental crimes violations, announced Environment and Natural Resources Division Assistant Attorney General Ignacia S. Moreno and U.S. Attorney Florence T. Nakakuni. Keoje Marine was sentenced to pay a $1.15 million criminal penalty…

German Shipping Company Sentenced in Puerto Rico to Pay $800,000 Penalty for Intentional Cover-Up of Oil Pollution. WASHINGTON – Uniteam Marine Shipping GmbH, a German corporation, was sentenced in federal court in San Juan, Puerto Rico, for violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS) and making false statements to the U.S. Coast Guard, announced Assistant Attorney General Ignacia S. Moreno and U.S. Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodriguez-Velez. The company was sentenced to pay an $800,000 criminal penalty, to include a $200,000 payment to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to fund a community service project in the District of Puerto Rico.

A Liberian-incorporated shipping company pleaded guilty in federal court in Trenton, N.J., to failing to keep accurate oily water discharge records and using falsified records to conceal the discharge at sea of untreated bilge from one of its cargo ships, the Justice Department announced. Dalnave Navigation Inc., a Liberian company with offices in Athens, Greece, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Peter G. Sheridan immediately after the guilty plea to pay a fine of $1m, the maximum fine allowable for the two counts to which the company pleaded guilty. Additionally, the company agreed to pay a $350,000 community service payment to the congressionally-established National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to be used specifically for the protection…

STX Pan Ocean Co. Ltd. (STX), headquartered in Seoul, Korea, and the owner of the commercial cargo ship, M/V Ocean Jade, pleaded guilty today to conspiracy as well as falsifying and failing to properly maintain records meant to ensure compliance with maritime pollution laws, the Justice Department announced. The chief engineer of the M/V Ocean Jade, Hong Hak Kang, a Korean citizen, also pleaded guilty today to failing to maintain environmental records and making false statements. STX, which faces five years probation for each of the four counts against it, has agreed to pay a $2m fine, as well as make a $200,000 community service payment to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

Hae Wan Yang, 54, of South Korea, was sentenced on Dec. 30 in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to two months of home confinement in the United States and two years of supervised release for violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships by knowingly failing to maintain an accurate Garbage Record Book. Yang was the Captain of the M/V Pan Voyager a ship belonging to STX Pan Ocean Co., Ltd., a South Korean Shipping Company. The inaccuracy was a failure to record a dumping incident during which approximately six 55-gallon drums, thirty plastic lined rice sacks, and approximately two hundred garbage bags containing oil contaminated grain were thrown into the ocean during a voyage from Korea to Longview, Washington.

United States Attorney Joseph P. Russoniello announced that Casilda Shipping, Ltd., the Maltese company that owned the Rio Gold (a 23,000 ton ocean-going cargo ship registered in Malta); Genesis Seatrading Corporation, the Greek operating company; and Mr. Pantelis Thomas, the vessel’s Chief Engineer and a citizen of Greece, all pleaded guilty and were sentenced last week for conspiring to falsify waste oil disposal records related to the intentional disposal of waste oil into the ocean while in international waters. Casilda Shipping, Ltd., was sentenced to pay a fine of $750,000 and to serve three years of probation. Genesis Seatrading Corporation was sentenced to serve three years of probation and to comply with an extensive three-year Environmental Compliance Plan. Mr.

B.Navi Ship Management Services (B.Navi) was sentenced to pay $1.5m and serve three years probation in connection with the illegal dumping of oily sludge, bilge wastes, and oil-contaminated ballast water from the M/V Windsor Castle, a 27,000 gross-ton bulk carrier vessel, Ronald J. Tenpas, Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division, and Captain William Diehl, Commander of U.S. Coast Guard Sector Houston-Galveston announced. Engine room operations onboard large ocean-going vessels such as the M/V Windsor Castle generate large amounts of waste oil. International and law prohibit the discharge of waste oil without treatment by an Oil Water Separator.

Ionia Management, S.A. ("Ionia"), a Greek shipping company with offices in Piraeus, Greece, and Christos Kostakis, chief engineer aboard the M/T (Motor Tanker) Alkyon, a commercial oil and chemical tanker operated by IONIA, pled guilty to covering-up ocean dumping of waste oil by making false entries in a ship log and presenting that log to the United States Coast Guard in the course of an inspection required before docking at a United States port. The guilty pleas were entered in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, before United States District Judge Allyne R. Ross. According to the felony information filed, the Alkyon, like other large ships, produce waste oil from operation of its engineering machinery.

Karin J. Immergut, United States Attorney for the District of Oregon, Debra W. Yang, United States Attorney for the Central District of California, Donald P. Sims, Special Agent in Charge of the Portland Area Office, Criminal Investigation Division of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA-CID), United States Coast Guard Rear Admiral Jeffrey Garrett, Commander 13th Coast Guard District, and United States Coast Guard Captain Paul Jewell, Captain of the Port, Portland, announced today that Fujitrans Corporation, a Japanese transportation company, pled guilty to four felony charges for violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships, Title 33, United States Code, Section 1908(a) and Title 33, Code of Federal Regulations, Sections 151.25(a), (d) and (h).