Justice is served in case involving Princess cruises that killed a pregnant humpback whale

Princess Cruise Lines pay $750,000 over the death of a Humpback whale in Alaska.
06/05/2007 00:00:00 news/Dead-Whale-Cruise-Ship
January 2007.

United States Attorney Nelson P. Cohen has announced that Princess Cruise Lines pled guilty to a charge of knowingly failing to operate its vessel, the Dawn Princess, at a slow, safe speed while near two humpback whales in the area of Glacier Bay, Alaska.

Princess was sentenced in federal court in Anchorage, Alaska, to pay a $200,000 fine and to pay $550,000 to the National Park Foundation as a form of community service. In addition, Princess was sentenced to serve a term of one-year probation which will expire when the required payments are made.

The following facts were established: On the afternoon of July 12, 2001, Princess Cruise Lines cruise ship, the Dawn Princess, was in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve (Park) ending a day in Park waters. At approximately 2:40 p.m., at the mouth of Bartlett Cove several miles inside the Park, the vessel slowed to five knots so that two Park rangers could be transferred from the Dawn Princess to a Park Service boat.

After dropping off the rangers, the vessel remained within Park waters for twenty-five more minutes until, at 3:05 p.m., it crossed the Park boundary and turned north into Icy Strait. During the vessel's transit of Glacier Bay, two licensed Southeast Alaska pilots were aboard, as required by Alaska law. During this transit, the vessel’s bridge was occupied by one of the pilots, a naturalist, the ship's captain and the usual complement of crew. The weather was clear, the winds were light and the vessel was moving against an incoming tide.

Humpback whale facts

* The humpback whale (Magaptera novaeangliae) is a warm-blooded baleen (filter feeding) marine mammal that can live 45-50 years in the wild, grows to about 50 feet long and can weigh 30-50 tons. Females reach sexual maturity at 4-7 years and give birth to a single calf every 1.3 years that remains with its mother for a year or longer. Humpbacks are well known for their ‘songs’, which are considered the most complex vocalizations in the animal kingdom.
* Commercial whaling, which continued through the mid-20th century, reduced the worldwide population of humpback whales from an estimated population of 125,000 animals to fewer than 5,000. The current worldwide population is estimated to be approximately 20,000. Of these, approximately 6,000 humpback whales make up the North Pacific population, most of which summer and feed in Alaskan waters and migrate in the fall to Hawaiian waters where they bear their young. In 2001, only 100 humpback whales were observed in the Glacier Bay/Icy Strait area. The North Pacific population will have to grow to over 9,000 animals before it is likely to be considered for removal from the list of endangered species.

According to passengers and bridge crew, two humpback whales were spotted from the bridge a short time after the rangers were dropped off. When first spotted, the whales were approximately 700 yards (between 1/4 and ½ mile) off the vessel's port (left) bow, headed to the right on a course that could intersect the ship's route. The whales dove and surfaced at least twice as they drew near the Dawn Princess, but did not change course. The Dawn Princess continued accelerating and did not change course. Within 100 yards of the Dawn Princess, one whale ‘dived deep’, but the other did not.

Just before passing out of sight under the vessel's prow, the second whale appeared to begin a terminal dive. Some persons aboard the ship reported feeling the ship shudder, others reported no shudder or any other indication that the vessel struck the whale. The naturalist and captain ran to the starboard bridge wing to look for the whales. The captain noticed that the vessel was traveling at 14 knots. The whales were not seen again. The vessel made no report of a possible collision to the National Park Service or any other government agency. The close encounter was not mentioned in the vessel's log

The next day, on July 13, the naturalist e-mailed a colleague, saying she thought the Dawn Princess may have struck a humpback whale the day before. The naturalist related the essential events and added that she thought the ship was traveling at 15-18 knots and was outside the Park boundary when the whale was struck. She wrote that the whales seemed to be unaware of the vessel and that ‘as the ship passed by there was no sign on the bridge that we might have made contact.’ She reported that she was told later by friends below decks that they heard a ‘resounding thud.’

On July 14, the Dawn Princess captain, in response to a question, told another pilot aboard the vessel that he was uncertain whether the Dawn Princess hit a whale the day before.

On July 16, a Park naturalist discovered a dead, bloated humpback whale floating in Glacier Bay within Park waters, near the area through which the Dawn Princess had transited four days earlier. The carcass appeared to have recently surfaced. The Park Service towed the carcass to Pt. Gustavus, where it was beached pending a necropsy.

On July 22, a marine mammal expert from California examined the whale carcass, finding massive blunt trauma injuries to the right side of the animal's head, including a fractured skull, eye socket and cervical vertebrae, consistent with a vessel collision. A fetal skeleton was found in the whale. That is, the whale was carrying a calf. The whale was identified from fluke markings as ‘Whale #68,’ which had been sighted many times in the past and was known to frequent the area.

On August 6, a vice-president for Princess Cruise Lines called the Park Superintendent and said that the Dawn Princess had a close encounter with two whales on July 12, 2001 and the company was investigating the matter. On the same day, Princess Cruise Lines imposed a fleet-wide speed limit of 10 knots for vessels transiting Icy Strait.

The unlawful taking (killing) of humpback whales is prohibited by both the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The ‘slow, safe speed’ regulation, under which this case was charged, was implemented in 2001 to support the ‘anti-taking’ provisions of the two laws. Thus, a knowing failure to maintain a ‘slow, safe speed’ when near humpback whales constitutes a violation of the Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act and carries the identical penalties of the taking violation. Such conduct is a federal Class A misdemeanour violation of law, punishable (for a corporation) by a fine of up to $200,000, restitution in an amount to be determined by the Court, and up to five years probation.

‘The specific purpose of the regulation under which this case was charged is to require vessels to reduce speed when they are near humpback whales in order to avoid collisions that could kill these endangered leviathans. In this first-of-its-kind prosecution, prosecutors from this office and the Environmental Crimes Section of the Department of Justice, along with special agents and investigators from the Park Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration engaged in a thorough and detailed investigation, often with the assistance and cooperation of Princess.’ said Mr. Cohen.

Tomie Lee, Superintendent of Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, expressed satisfaction at the outcome of the case. ‘It’s been a long time coming,’ she said, ‘but we support both the outcome and the diligence shown by the prosecutors and investigators in this landmark case. As well as being a majestic and endangered species, the humpback whale is also a public symbol of Glacier Bay,’ she added. ‘Protection of these resources is of paramount importance to us. So when we began to hear witness reports of a cruise-ship colliding with a whale and then learned that this particular whale, whom researchers had first identified in 1975 and nicknamed ‘Snow’ because of her fluke markings, died of injuries consistent with a ship-strike, we began a dialoge with Princess and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and proceeded diligently with our investigation, so we could be sure to get things right. While these kinds of criminal convictions can result in a loss of federal contracts to service visitors in a national park, in this case we feel Princess has stepped up and made significant, voluntary operational changes that protect whales and the marine environment..’