Princess Cruise Lines has been ordered to pay fines totaling $750,000 in the death of a pregnant humpback whale whose bloated body was found floating in Glacier Bay.
US District Court Magistrate Judge John D. Roberts ordered Princess to pay a $200,000 fine and 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 payments are made, said U.S. Attorney Nelson P. Cohen.
The case stems from a National Park naturalist's discovery of a dead, bloated humpback whale floating in Glacier Bay, within park waters, on July 16, 2001.
A marine mammal expert who examined the whale carcass found massive blunt trauma injuries to the right side of the whale's head, including a fractured skull, eye socket and cervical vertebrae, consistent with a vessel collision.
Two days earlier the cruise ship Dawn Princess was operating in the area and a naturalist aboard the vessel later reported to a colleague that she thought the vessel may have a struck one of two humpbacks traveling on a course that intersected the ship's route.
It was only several weeks later that Princess officials reported to the National Park Service a close encounter with two whales.
