Carnival got hit with a $20 million fine after dumping garbage into the ocean, but it's not the only cruise line guilty of trashing the sea, an expert says

• Carnival Corp admitted on Monday to releasing food waste and plastic into the ocean in violation of international cruise-ship pollution regulations.
• But Carnival isn't the only cruise line that commits environmental violations, said the cruise-industry expert Ross Klein.
• "It is more common than one would expect," Klein said in an email.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories

Carnival Corp and one of its subsidiaries, Princess Cruises, pleaded guilty on Monday to violating the terms of a probation agreement stemming from a 2017 conviction for improper waste disposal.

The company admitted to releasing food waste and plastic into the ocean in violation of pollution regulations, among other breaches of a five-year probation term that began in 2017 after Carnival said it illegally released oil into the ocean and deliberately hid the practice.

Read more: Carnival slapped with a $20 million fine after it was caught dumping trash into the ocean, again

But Carnival isn't the only cruise company that fails at times to follow the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL), an international agreement governing ship-based pollution. (Parts of the agreement are included in US law.)

"It is more common than one would expect," the cruise-industry expert Ross Klein, who has written four books about the cruise industry and manages a database of environmental violations committed by cruise lines, said in an email to Business Insider.

Klein's database lists 18 violations that have been reported by the media or in public documents during the past two years, including excessive disposals of fecal matter and other untreated gray water, which includes waste from bathrooms, laundry machines, and kitchens. But there may be environmental violations committed by cruise lines that are not discovered due to the inconsistent application of MARPOL around the world, Klein said.

"Given the absence of regular and systematic monitoring and enforcement of MARPOL regulations, except in Alaska, there is no way to know which company commits offenses most frequently," he said.

Have you worked on a cruise ship? Do you have a story to share? Email this reporter at mmatousek@businessinsider.com.

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