July 21, 1999
Web posted at: 12:54 p.m. EDT (1654 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., one of the world's largest cruise lines, has agreed to pay a record $18 million fine and plead guilty to 21 counts of dumping oil and hazardous chemicals and lying to the U.S. Coast Guard.

U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno made the announcement in Washington on Wednesday.

"We expect the laws to be enforced," Reno said. "If people flimflam us, they should expect the consequences."

"The message is ... our waters are far more fragile than people give them credit for," the attorney general said. "We've got to stop messing them up."

In guilty pleas filed in six cities, Royal Caribbean admitted that its fleet routinely dumped waste oil in U.S. waters. The company also admitted to dumping hazardous chemicals in U.S. harbors and coastal areas.

It also agreed to implement a court-monitored program to improve its procedures, and remained under investigation.

In June 1998, Royal Caribbean pleaded guilty to similar offenses involving Miami and San Juan, Puerto Rico. The cruise line was fined a total of $9 million in those two cases -- a record at that time -- and put on probation for five years.

Government tapes showed Royal Caribbean's practice of dumping oil into the oceans dated back to 1993, and that ships were equipped with illegal sewage pipes that bypassed required cleaning devices. The pipes were disassembled by crews before government inspections.

The cruise line also admitted in June that its crews maintained dummy logs -- which they called "fairy tale" books -- that hid the dumping.

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