Two months ago, we posted a video from a Brazilian newspaper showing MSC Cruises crew members apparently throwing black garbage bags into the water (video at bottom).
The video, taken by a passenger aboard an unidentified MSC ship (later identified as the Magnifica), created a hue and cry among environmentalists and citizens of Brazil. Rightfully so. Dumping of plastics and unprocessed garbage is illegal according to the international MARPOL recommendations. This dumping allegedly took place in Brazilian waters near a marine sanctuary.
After the passenger video surfaced, MSC, seemingly unrepentant, released a PR statement calling its cruise ships “Guardians of the Seas.” It said that it would investigate the alleged dumping and touted its environmental policies.
After we covered the story, a number of people within the industry contacted us. They suggested that dumping of garbage bags from cruise ships like this took place more often than the cruise lines would like the public to know.
Yesterday, we received photographs and videos from a concerned “Good Samaritan.” The images appear to show MSC crew members throwing garbage bags out to sea. Unlike the video taken by the passenger from an upper deck of the ship, these videos were taken by a former crew member inside of the ship showing what he described as illegal garbage dumping. We have posted two of the videos below.
The videos shown are short “snippets,” of only 10 seconds or so, of workers wearing blue MSC overalls carrying bags to the windowless portholes on a mooring deck and then heaving the bags out to sea.
The video and photographs were taken by a former crew member who wishes to remain anonymous.
The former employee claims that MSC discarded garbage bags often filled with plastics, oily discharge and other materials which the cruise lines are prohibited from dumping. The former employee took photos of a lower mooring deck showing a pile of garbage bags which he said were later thrown into the sea, including a stack of wooden pallets which had been broken down to fit through the portholes and then pitched out to sea.
The former employee told us that the dumping occurred from the MSC Magnifica within Brazilian waters.
Click on our Facebook page to see some of the photos of the dumping at sea.
The press in Brazil has focused on the cruise industry after bathers at a public beach called Praia da Tartaruga (Turtle Beach) near Búzios City in Brazil suffered irritated eyes, difficulty breathing, and gastrointestinal problems. The officials believe that cruise ships discharged noxious waste into the water. These images will add to the debate whether cruise lines are polluting the waters of Brazil.
This morning, we reached out to MSC Cruises’s Fort Lauderdale office for an explanation regarding what is shown in the latest videos and photographs. We have not received a response.
Have a thought? Please leave a comment below or join the discussion on our Facebook page.
Have a video or evidence of illegal cruise line conduct? Contact us. We will bring the story to the public.