In a photograph taken earlier this week, by an individual who wishes to remain anonymous, the Carnival Freedom can be seen belching out a cloud of dense, black smoke upon arrival in George Town, Grand Cayman.
The twelve-year-old Carnival vessel departed Galveston, Texas, on the evening of October 27 and arrived in George Town on Tuesday morning, according to Cruise Law News.
The unnamed photographer reported that Carnival Freedom had just arrived in George Town and was about to redirect to the anchorage area when it began smoking heavily from the exhaust stacks.
Carnival Freedom Belches Smoke in Cayman Islands https://t.co/SsvhZxLj07 @CarnivalPLC @CarnivalCruise air #pollution #dirtyships @KendraUlrich @standearth @cleanupcarnival @Standearth pic.twitter.com/BCmCV9q2Pe
— James (Jim) Walker (@CruiseLaw) November 3, 2019
This is just the latest instance of Carnival’s air pollution being casually caught on camera.
In summer 2019, a live-feed webcam installed over the Port of Nassau in the Bahamas showed the Carnival Victory spewing thick, black smoke over the port for around an hour. Webcam operator PTZtv, tweeted a portion of the video with the caption: “no smoke without…? –– hard to imagine anything good happening here.”
It’s a dismaying sight, especially since Carnival Corporation has been caught in violation of air emission laws more than once over the past several years while on probation for its history of environmental crimes.
In the last three years alone, the U.S. Department of Justice saw fit to levy record-high fines against Carnival Corporation, totaling $60 million.
#CarnivalVictory “no smoke without …?” — hard to imagine anything good happening here. https://t.co/EJRqRrPlWx around 4:25pm EDT on Sunday 7/28/2019 pic.twitter.com/h7kf61RvmR
— PTZtv (@PTZtv) July 28, 2019
According to Cruise Law News, Judge Seitz just scheduled a hearing for December 19, 2019, in the U.S. Government’s case against Carnival Corporation to address “compliance challenges,” including incidents logged in Carnival’s Quarterly Tracking Chart filings, pertaining to air emissions, dumping of non-food items (including plastics) in food waste and discharges of other prohibited waste streams, including garbage, ballast water, black water (sewage), grey water, oil and oily waste products.
TravelPulse has reached out to Carnival Cruise Lines for their statement on the allegations.