Carnival Corp. ships may need court OK 60 days before US resumption

Miami Herald report

According to The Miami Herald, US District Judge Patricia Seitz plans to order that each of the company's ships notify her 60 days ahead of entering US waters. She will then determine if each vessel is in environmental compliance.

This comes as cruise operators have been gearing up for an anticipated resumption of service from the US, where a no-sail order runs through October. One week ago, Vice President Mike Pence held a call with cruise leaders about a safe restart, guided by the Healthy Sail Panel's 74 recommendations for addressing COVID-19.

The Herald said Seitz gave notice about the compliance order during a Friday status conference about Carnival Corp.'s probation for environmental crimes.

Probation since 2017

The Carnival fleet has been in an environmental compliance program since 2017, springing from a criminal case involving the deliberate dumping of oil-contaminated waste from Caribbean Princess.

In 2019, Carnival paid a $20m fine and was ordered to submit to more rigorous oversight by court-appointed monitors during the next three years — among a host of other actions — to settle charges that it violated probation in the pollution case.