EMEA News
Scrubber Discharge Gets Master Fined in Absentia
A scrubber discharge from a bulker has garnered the ship's captain a hefy fine from a French court.
The incident dates back to March last year when the master of merchant vessel Seaforce discharged around a million litres of wash water in the waters of Fos-sur-Mer.
The court found that the master should have made sure that his order to stop the scrubbers had been acted on, according to French news provider mesinfo.fr.
The seafarer was handed a EUR 50,000 ($54,000) fine in absentia by a Marseilles court with additional, smaller amounts to be paid to local organisations, the report added
Seaforce is a 181,098 dwt bulk carrier operated by Greek shipping interests, according to shipping database equasis.
Ship exhaust abatement technology more commonly known as scrubbers uses water to wash pollutants from the exhaust before it is released into the atmosphere. The resulting wash water can be stored onboard or released into the sea depending of the type of scrubber, open or closed loop, in use.
The wash water is seen in some quarters as damaging to the marine environment and has been banned from being discharged in port by some port authorities.
