The cruise crime data, released earlier this week as part of the quarterly reporting by the Department of Transportation (DOT), again shows that Carnival Cruise Line clearly has the most sexual assaults and rapes as well as the most physical assault with serious personal injuries, both in total numbers and on a per capita basis.

Carnival Has Almost Forty Percent More Rapes and Sexual Assaults Than Royal Caribbean On Its Ships

The data required by the Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act of 2010 show that Carnival Cruise Line had a record number of thirteen (13) sexual assaults and rapes between October 1, 2024 and December 31, 2024. It had eight (8) such crimes alleged in the third quarter, nine (9) in the second quarter, and nine (9) in the first quarter for a total of thirty-nine (39) such crimes alleged on its cruise ship for 2024.

Carnival has around 35,000 fewer passengers onboard its fleet on an average day compared to Royal Caribbean which has the same number of ships (27).

Carnival’s number of sexual crimes far exceed all other cruise lines. Royal Caribbean, for example, had twenty-eight (28) such sexual crimes for 2024. The fact that Carnival has 35,000 fewer guests than Royal Caribbean at any given time but forty percent more sexual assaults and rapes on its ships leads to a much higher per capita rate of such crimes on Carnival ships.

Physical Assaults With Serious Personal Injuries

Carnival Cruise Line also had four (4) physical assaults leading to serious personal injuries last quarter. Carnival had a total of eighteen (18) such serious physical assaults in 2024. This also far exceeds to number of such violent crimes on other cruise ships in both total numbers and on a per capita basis.

Why Does Carnival Cruise Line Have The Highest Number of Sexual Assaults and Physical Assaults Leading to Serious Bodily Injury?

There is a direct correlation between excessive alcohol served on Carnival’s “fun ships” and violence, in general, and sexual violence against women, in particular. Bartenders and waiters on Carnival cruise ships are not paid a salary by Carnival but depend on tips and gratuities. The bartenders are motivated to sell excessive amounts of alcohol in order to earn a living. There is no independent police force on these increasingly huge cruise ships. Girls and young women are particularly vulnerable to sexual abuse in what is often a lawless environment.

This is a cruise line which has made a conscious decision not to warn its guests of the danger of violence and sexual violence during cruises on its “fun ships.” Consider: Carnival Cruise Passenger Viciously Beaten and Cut in the Face With Bar Glass.

The reality of a “typical cruise,” on a Carnival ship from Miami to the Bahamas, for example, involves cruising on a ship in the most dangerous fleet at sea to one of the most dangerous cruise destination in the world. Consider: Two Guests From the Carnival Elation Report Being Drugged and Raped During Excursion in the Bahamas, cruise lines have an absolute duty to warn its passengers of crime dangers not only on its ships but in the ports of call where they visit. This is true whether the cruise guests are on an excursion promoted and sold by the cruise line or an independant excursion unrelated to the cruise line. Carlisle v. Ulysses Line Ltd., S.A.,475 So. 2d 248, 251 (Fla. 3rd DCA 1985), Chaparro v. Carnival, 693 F.3d 1333 (11th Cir. 2012).

“Fight Ships” Not “Fun Ships?”

You only have to watch the numerous YouTube videos of bar brawls on Carnival ships to realize that there’s a good reason why many people call Carnival ships the “fight ships” rather than the “fun ships.” The DOT cruise crime data bears this out.

Carnival Refuses to Acknowledge Its High Crimes Rates

Carnival Cruise Line has steadfastly refused to acknowledge the high crime rates on its cruise ships. Its corporate communication department consistently tries to minimize the danger to the traveling public. Earlier this year, Chris Chiames, chief communications officer for Carnival Cruise Line, tried to minimize Carnival’s numerous crimes alleged on its ships, telling the Washington Post that Carnival (which carried 5.5 million guests last year) allegedly operated “a much bigger fleet, more guests and more U.S. operations than any of our competitors.”

Carnival’s claims that its fleet is allegedly larger and it carries more guests is false and misleading. In fact, Carnival Cruise Line also has the same number of cruise ships as Royal Caribbean (each own 27 ships). But Royal Caribbean has significantly larger cruise ships with greater capacity and carries more passengers than Carnival at any given time. Royal Caribbean carries a maximum of over 166,000 passengers whereas Carnival Cruise Line has a maximum of around 130,000 passengers at any given time.

Carnival Cruise Line also has a tradition of refusing to accept accountability and misrepresenting information which it finds to be detrimental to its reputation and business interests. For example, when Carnival Corporation pled guilty to the second revocation of its criminal probation for widespread pollution in January of 2022, the Department of Justice stated that the cruise line has “a culture that seeks to minimize or avoid information that is negative, uncomfortable, or threatening to the company, including to top leadership.” This is an integral part of the problem with the sexual and violent crimes alleged to be committed on cruise ships it operates. A recidivist corporate cruise felon like Carnival, with its culture of cover ups, lies and misinformation, will inevitably try to cover-up the crimes, blame the victims and lie to the public.

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Image credit: Carnival Liberty leaving Miami – Jim Walker; Carnival Magic in Norfolk, VA- Jim Walker.

A resident of Polk City, Florida was arrested at the Port of Tampa on charges of possessing and transporting child pornography on the Margaritaville at Sea’s Islander, according to a local news station in Tampa.

James Oxley, age 52, boarded the Islander cruise ship, operated by Margaritaville at Sea, on December 17, 2025 for a five day cruise to ports in Mexico. Almost fifteen years earlier (April 2012), Oxley was found guilty in Orange County, Florida on three counts of possession of a photograph or picture showing the sexual performance by a child, in violation of Florida Statute 827.071(5). This conviction required Oxley to register as a sexual offender.

Oxley viewed pornographic images (both photographs and videos) of minors on his iPhone during the cruise. The criminal court file reveals that when Oxley was arrested at the end of the cruise, his iPhone contained approximately 2,041 images and 6 videos in a folder tilted “Recently Deleted,” only 17 of which were not child pornography or child erotica.

When the cruise ship returned to port and Oxley was disemarking, he was referred to a secondary inspection by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) due to Oxley’s status as a sex offender. While in secondary inspection, CBP Officers discovered Oxley was in possession of an iPhone 13. Oxley provided the passcode to his iPhone 13 to CBP. During an initial inspection, CBP Officers observed child pornography in the “Recently Deleted” folder. The officers determined that he tried to delete the images on December 21, 2024 while the cruise ship was at sea returning to port in Tampa, after visiting Progreso and Cozumel, Mexico.

A review of the federal court criminal file contained an affidavit from a Special Agent with the United States Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations who viewed Oxley’s phone. Of the numerous images, there were photographs of children between the ages of five and eight years old.

After being advised of and waiving his Miranda rights, Oxley told the agents that shortly before the cruise, he visited a Russian website that is “well known for hosting images and videos of child pornography and child erotica.” He also admitted that he began “saving images sporadically from this website since his prior conviction for child pornography in 2012.”

A press release from the U.S. Attorney’s for the Middle District of Florida indicated that Oxley also possessed AI generated images that depicted minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Oxley faces a maximum penalty of 40 years in federal prison for transporting child sex abuse material and up to 20 years in federal prison for the AI offenses and possession of images and videos of child exploitation.

Of interest, this particular cruise line, Margaritaville at Sea, apparently permits sex offenders to cruise without restrictions. Some cruise lines, particularly Carnival and Royal Caribbean, do not permit sexual offenders to cruise on their ships.

Anyone convicted of being a sexual offender must register and their status is readily available to the public. At the time of this cruise, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE). FDLE had listed Oxley’s status as a sex offender and its online site had a flyer posted on its website (see below). Oxley’s status as a convicted sexual offender was also available on the National Sex Offender Public Website.

The fact that Oxley boarded the Islander cruise ship with literally thousands of sexually explicit images involving minors could easily have been avoided if Margaritaville at Sea simply had the same policy as Carnival and Royal Caribbean of reviewing the sex offender database. Considering that there are at least 750,000 registered sexual offenders in the U.S., it is long past time that all cruise lines adopt and enforce a ban against sexual offenders being allowed on cruise ships. Does anyone really want to go on a family cruise with a convicted sex offender with thousands of images of child pornography on his iPhone?

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January 22, 2025 Update:

Margaritaville at Sea🛳️ has no policies preventing convicted sex offenders, like this pervert, to board its #cruise ships. Goodness gracious, even a cruise line as raunchy as Carnival Cruise Line prohibits sex offenders from boarding!!🤡🚢🏴‍☠️👍 #cruiselife #travelwww.local10.com/news/local/2…

James (Jim) Walker (@cruiselaw.bsky.social) 2025-01-22T20:47:28.370Z

Image credits: James Oxley mugshots – Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office via FOX13 and FDLE Sexual Offenders and Predators Search database; Tampa-Mexico cruise schematic – iCruise; Islander – Margaritaville at Sea.

There is a reason why Carnival cruise ships have the highest per capita rate of sexual assaults on the high seas, as this case demonstrates.

Last week, after a two-week trial, a federal jury found Jalen Thomas Kelley, age 22,  guilty of aggravated sexual abuse, sexual abuse, and assault of a minor aboard the Carnival Legend cruise ship.

The United States Attorney for the District of Maryland (where Kelly was from) stated: “According to the evidence presented at trial, between January 1, and January 2, 2023, the defendant forcibly raped and assaulted the victim, who was a minor at the time, aboard the Carnival Legend.”

According to the court file, Kelley was a junior at Wingate University vacationing on the Carnival Legend which sailed out of Baltimore, when he met a 17-year-old girl on the Carnival cruise ship after a New Year’s Eve party on the early morning of Jan. 1, 2023, according to the court file.

Most sexual assaults which occur during cruises on Carnival ships involve an intoxicated victim. There is a direct correlation between excessive alcohol sold on cruise ships and shipboard crime, in general, and sexual crimes against women, in particular.

According to the Miami Herald, the minor became intoxicated at the party on the cruise ship. “Kelley saw that (she) was intoxicated (by his own admission), realized she was vulnerable, and offered to take her to the bathroom.” When she stepped outside the bathroom (in his cabin), Kelley pushed her on the bed, “face first,” and raped her. “After raping (her), Kelley asked, ‘You good?.’”

None of the news accounts explain how the minor had access to the party where alcohol was served on the cruise ship.

According to the court file, after the cruise returned to Baltimore, the victim returned with her family home to Virginia, where she reported the rape to her parents and police. A medical examination at a hospital revealed bruises on her arm and shins, as well as “vaginal abrasions, tearing and bruising,” according to the court file.

During Kelley’s trial, jurors heard testimony from six people who accused Kelley of sexually assaulting them on different occasions. In 2019, Kelley was convicted as a minor in a sexual assault case, according to the Miami Herald. While the FBI was investigating him, four months after the cruise, he allegedly raped a classmate at Wingate University in North Carolina, prosecutors said.

Our firm first reported on the shipboard sexual assault last year. We mentioned that “the cruise industry refuses to disclose, generally, when the victim of a sexual assault on a cruise ship is a minor. However, testimony of the FBI before Congress indicates that approximately one-third of sex crimes on cruises are committed against children.”

Carnival has a per capita sexual assault rape more than 20 to 25 states in the U.S., depending on the year. With it booze-permeated “fun ship” atmosphere, taking a cruise on a Carnival ship is the one of the most dangerous place to take your daughters on vacation.


Kelly potentially faces life in prison. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for May

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Image credit: Carnival Legend – Carnival Cruise Line website; Jalen Kelley – Gaston County Jail via Recently BookedCarnival Legend – Yankeesman312 – CC BY-SA 4.0 wikipedia / creative commons.

A seventy-two year old man was reported missing on Monday morning from the Ruby Princess when it returned to port in San Francisco following a five day cruise to Mexico, according to numerous national and local news stations.

It remains unknown how the man went overboard or the circumstances which led to the incident. A spokesperson for Princess Cruises said that after staff reviewed video footage from the ship and searched the ship several times without success, it concluded that the guest probably went overboard.

The trade organization for the cruise industry, the Cruise Line International Association (CLIA), then quickly released its standard statement that all of its “careful” investigations following man overboards have always found, in every case, that the person going overboard allegedly did so either “intentionally” or “recklessly.”

This is a bold face lie. We have written about numerous incidents where passengers were thrown overboard, typically by the guest’s husband or boyfriend.

It’s a far-fetched conclusion that all four hundred and nineteen (419) people who have gone overboard in the last 25 years have either decided to end their life or acted recklessly on the cruise ship. The primarily cause of guests going overboard is excess sale and consumption of alcohol. Probably around 75% of passenger who go overboard do so after the cruise ship sells and serves them with an excessive amount of alcohol (say, 15 to 20 drinks). Yes, it may be fair to characterize drinking twenty drinks to be”reckless” but it is clearly reckless for a cruise line, particularly the “fun ship” Carnival, to serve that much booze to try and keep its onboard sales highly profitable. There is a direct relationship between excessive booze and overboard passengers (as well as violence) on cruise ships.

Suicides involving cruise ship passengers on cruise ships are relatively rare (and comprise less than 5% of overboard incidents). It is primarily cruise ship employees who decide to end their lives by jumping overboard, often due to long hours / overwork and a lack of emotional support over the course of long (six to ten months) contracts where crew members are away from their family and loved ones.

None of the news outlets which reported on this latest incident addressed the issue of why this ship did not have an automatic man overboard (MOB) system installed. Auto-MOB systems, required since 2012 by the Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act (CVSSA), include the use of motion detection which automatically sends a signal to the bridge when a person goes over the ship’s rails and then tracks the person in the water using state of the art infrared and radar technology. These life-saving safety systems have been extensively tested and have been shown to effectively signal a person going overboard and then track the person in the water, even at night.

No Carnival Corporation owned cruise ships have installed such life-saving systems. To our knowledge only Disney Cruises and MSC Cruises (on one MSC ship, the MSC Meraviglia) have state-of-the-art MOB systems on their ships.

Over 250 passengers and crew members have been died at sea after going overboard from cruise ships without MOB systems since the cruise industry was require to install such systems in compliance with the CVSSA.

There have been eighteen people who have gone overboard this year from cruise ships. None of these ships had the CVSSA-required MOB systems. The last incident was five weeks ago when a guest went overboard from the Allure of the Seas which, like all other ships owned and operated by Royal Caribbean, did not have this life-saving equipment installed.

It is a shame that the cruise industry not only refuses to install life-saving equipment but always blames their guests irrespective of the true facts.

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Image credit: Man overboard – Richard Bosman Man Overboard (1981) New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MOMA); Ruby Princess – nbcbayarea (screen grab); CLIA statement = nbcbayarea.

The Miami-Dade Police Department arrested a passenger who disembarked from an unidentified cruise ship at PortMiami last weekend on charges of “purchasing child sexual abuse material online.”

Miami-Dade Police arrested Nicholas Gardener, age 24, of Brampton, Ontario who was initially held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $50,000 bond for five felony charges related to the possession of child sexual abuse materials.

According to Local News 10 in Miami, the arrest report indicates that a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer searched Gardner’s phone and found three illicit videos and two illicit images which depicted girls between the ages of 5 and 8 being victimized.

There have been a significant number of arrests for sexual crimes on cruise ships by state and federal law enforcement officers in South Florida. At least seventeen (17) crew members have been arrested in a seven month period in 2024 for possession of child pornography on cruise ships returning to ports primarily in Miami and Fort Lauderdale.

The cruise crime data required by the Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act (CVSSA) from the third quarter of this year (from July 1 – September 30) shows that sexual assaults on cruise ships rose to 38 from 25 (from April 1 to June 30). Surprisingly, Disney Cruise Line led all cruise lines with 11 sexual assaults and rapes in just three months. It is unknown to the public how many of these sexual crimes involved minors. (The cruise industry lobbied heavily to avoid having to disclose whether children were victimized while the U.S. Congress was enacting the CVSSA).

The CVSSA does not disclose when a crew member or cruise guest is arrested on charges of child pornography. The public is dependant on reports of the local news organization reporting these types of crimes.

Taking a cruise with your family exposes them to a significant risk of a sexual crime. Unfortunately, enforcement often is unduly concerned with the reputation of the cruise industry and does not disclose the name of a particular cruise ship when a sexual crime takes place.

The local news report of this crime (Gardener reportedly confessed) did not identify the name of the cruise ship. Last Saturday, six ships operated by four cruise lines were at the port of Miami: Icon of the Seas, Independence of the Seas, Norwegian Joy, MSC Seascape, Carnival Magic, and Carnival Sunrise.

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Image credits: Photo of Carnival, NCL and Royal Caribbean ships – Financial Times; Nicholas Gardener mug shot – Miami Dade Police via Local News 10.

A sixty-six (66) year-old passenger was reported overboard from the Allure of the Seas cruise ship north of Nassau, Bahamas last night.

Around 9:40 p.m. last night, passengers reported hearing an “Oscar-Oscar-Oscar” announcement. A rescue craft was reportedly deployed to search for the missing woman. The Allure used search lights on the dark waters to aid in the search. Another Royal Caribbean cruise ship, the Utopia of the Seas (mistakenly referred to as the Icon of the Seas by one passenger) aided in the search.

I have seen no online accounts from anyone who actually witnessed the person going into the water. Most postings on social media and news accounts refer to the person “falling” from the ship but there are no clear descriptions whether she accidentally went overboard or intentionally jumped.

The ship had a large number of Taylor Swift fans aboard. There were a number of people live-streaming after the guest went overboard.

According to cruse expert Dr. Ross Klein, this is the 418th person to go overboard since 2000.

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October 23rd Update: According to the Miami Herald, the missing passenger “fell from the Allure of the Seas ship around 9:40 p.m. . . . . The ship’s crews launched a search and notified the Coast Guard at 10:30 p.m.

October 24th Update:

The U.S. Coast Guard suspended the search for the overboard guest this morning.

The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that 170 people on the Radiance of the Seas were sickened with diarrhea and abdominal cramps among other gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms. The CDC reports that during the last cruise (September 20th– September 27th), 167 out of 2,172 (7.69%) passengers reported being ill during the voyage on the Royal Caribbean cruise ship. Three of 894 (0.34%) crew members also reported GI symptoms.

The CDC did not list the type of GI infection. Of the last ten GI infections this year, seven cases involved norovirus, one involved E. coli and two were unknown. As usual, the CDC did not state how or why the outbreak took place and did not disclose the probable cause of the infections.

It is well established by the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that the usual cause of a norovirus outbreak is contaminated food or water. Norovirus is also easily spread via airborne transmission. But the cruise line invariably blames their guests irrespective of the true facts.

Of the last ten GI outbreak cases on cruise ships, six involved ships owned by Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd. (which involved ships operated by Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises and Silversea Cruises).

The Radiance of the Seas has had two GI outbreaks this year alone, the last one occurred in April which involved the common culprit norovirus.

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Image credit: Radiance of the Seas – Fletcher6 CC BY-SA 3.0 commons wikimedia; abdomen – egeamedical.com.

Update: The number of infected quests increased to 180 of 2,172 (8.29%) with 2 crew members sickened.

An adult cruise passenger, identified as Yorkiss Yazbek Montalvo Ramos, age 35, of Reynosa, Mexico, was arrested last weekend on a charge of lewd and lascivious touching of a minor after he grabbed a 17-year-old male’s penis while they were onboard the MSC Seascape, according to Miami’s Local 10 News.


Miami-Dade police said the incident happened at about 3 a.m. after adult passenger Ramos followed the teenager into a public bathroom.

Florida is the only state in the U.S. where local law enforcement, in addition to the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), has statutory jurisdiction to investigate crimes which are alleged to occur on foreign owned and operated cruise ships in international waters (as long as the cruise ships leave from and return to a port in Florida). State police officers from the Miami-Dade County Police Department and the Broward County Sheriff’s Office and prosecutors from the Florida State Attorneys Office are far more likely to take crimes like this seriously than the FBI and U.S. Attorneys Office.

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Image credit: MSC SeascapeRene Cortin CC BY-SA 4.0 commons / wikimedia; Yorkiss Yazbek Montalvo Ramos – Local 10 News.

Seventy-five people (65 guests and 10 crew members) were sick with gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms on the Arcadia cruise ship when the P&O Cruises ship arrived in the port of New York this week.

The report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicated that 3.32% (65) of the 1,959 guests and 1.25% (10) of the 799 crew members were sickened. The CDC has not figured out what type of infection was involved.

75% of the outbreaks this year involved highly contagious norovirus. Of the 12 GI outbreaks this year, 9 incidents involved norovirus; one outbreak involved E. coli; and the causative agent for two outbreaks remain unknown.

As usual, the CDC did not arrive at a conclusion regarding the source and cause of the outbreak. The CDC and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have long stated that most norovirus outbreaks are caused by contaminated food and/or water. Cruise lines typically blame the passengers for the outbreak despite the lack of technical information supporting such a conclusion.

It is also well established that norovirus can be spread in the air, although no cruise lines respond to an outbreak by dispensing N95 masks.

The usual debate when a GI outbreak is announced involves the public casting blame on uncooked cruise line food and the cruise lines saying that the passengers failed to wash their hands. My thought is that you can wash your hands several times a day but it is not going to prevent you from becoming sick if the food is contaminated by ill food handlers and the virus is being transmitted through the air.

One of the shortcomings of the CDC’s Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP) is that the CDC does not make an effort to determine how GI outbreaks occur. The CDC does not make factual, scientific determinations regarding the actual source of the disease transmission (i.e., a particular type of food and/or water and the location of the initial outbreak). This is probably due to the limited resources of the CDC and the quick turn-around of cruise ships in U.S. ports.

The cruise industry has no interest in actually determining why a specific outbreak takes place. Most cruise lines will always claim that a guest brought the virus aboard the ship and other passengers then failed to wash their hands. Neither the CDC nor cruise lines investigate whether galley staff and/or food handlers were working while infected. There is no analysis what the passengers, who became ill, last ate or were served during the same seating and/or by the same waiters. There is no tracking by cruise lines of illnesses due to the type of food served during the cruise. This is to be sharply contrasted with shore-side major restaurant businesses in the U.S. when a disease outbreak occurs. Chipotle, for example, has a reputation of determining the specific source of an norovirus outbreak and then focusing on the distributor which supplied the particular contaminated sprouts, lettuce or other food item.

Interested in this issue? We suggest reading the article After Years of Decline, Norovirus Outbreaks Surge on Cruise Ships and our article about a GI outbreak on another Princess cruise ship, the Ruby Princess, a little over a year ago:

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September 24, 2024 update:

The CDC updated the number of ill passengers and crew members. 87 of 1,959 (4.44%) of the passengers and 11 of 799 (1.35%) of the crew have reported ill.

Photo credit: Arcadia Pjotr Mahhonin CC BY-SA 4.0, commons / wikimedia; norovirus – User:Graham Beards at en.wikipedia

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) arrested a cruise ship crew member, identified as Akshay Somaroo, for possession and importation of child pornography near Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut, Canada according to Nunatsiaq News. At the time of his arrest, Somaroo was working on the World Explorer, a relatively small expedition cruise ship with a capacity of around 170 guests and 130 crew members.

The local news reported that RCMP officers boarded the cruise ship in Frobisher Bay to assist Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and Fisheries and Oceans Canada officers with what were described as “routine” customs examinations. While conducting these examinations, this crew member, who reportedly is from Mauritius, was searched by CBSA officers and was subsequently arrested after he was found to be in possession of child pornography.

The arrest of this 31 year-old crew member brings the total number of crew members arrested for child pornograhy to seventeen (17) in just the last seven months. This is the highest number of such arrests since I began reporting about the cruise industry fifteen years ago.

Somaroo did not enter a plea and is scheduled to appear in the Nunavut Court of Justice on September 11th, according to a news release on the RCMP website.

Mystic Cruises owns the World Explorer which is currently chartered to and operated by Quark Expeditions and Nicko Cruises.

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Image credit: Akshay Somaroo in custody of Canadian sheriff’s office – Arty Sarkisian via Nunatsiaq News; World ExplorerQuark Expeditions