Gremex Shipping fined in pollution case

Gremex Shipping was fined $1.75 million and put on probation Oct. 30 after pleading guilty in federal district court in Pensacola, Fla., to a felony violation of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS)

Specifically, Gremex was charged with creating and providing false records to the U.S. Coast Guard to conceal the illegal discharge of oily bilge waste into the ocean by its managed vessel, the M/V Suhar.

The charge stems from a Coast Guard investigation of the ship once it arrived in Pensacola on Aug. 25, 2023. The Suhar is a 7,602 gross ton Panamanian-flagged ocean-going bulk carrier that routinely hauled cement from Tampico, Mexico, to Pensacola.

Since March 2021, day-to-day operation of the ship was undertaken by Gremex, which was responsible for hiring all crew, and ensuring compliance with all policies on protection of the environment in accordance with international regulations. After boarding the ship to determine compliance with all applicable laws, Coast Guard personnel determined that the vessel’s crew had regularly discharged untreated oily bilge water into sea in a manner that bypassed onboard pollution control equipment, and then falsified the ship’s oil record book to conceal these discharges.

Consistent with a sentencing recommendation jointly proposed by the government and Gremex, the court sentenced the company to pay the $1.75 million fine, serve a four-year term of probation and commit to developing and implementing an environmental compliance plan that will be in effect during the time the company is on probation.