MSC Fined $1.75 Million

MSC Shipmanagement Limited and Hong Kong Spirit Shipping and Trading Limited, the owner of the containership MSC Samira III, were fined a total of $1.75 million for illegally discharging oily waste into the sea and improperly maintaining records.

U.S. authorities stated that the two companies admitted to violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS) and were also sentenced to four years of probation.

The violations aboard MSC Samira III reportedly occurred between June 2024 and January 2025. Senior engine department personnel were found to have instructed crew members to transfer oily bilge water from the bilge holding tank into the sewage holding tank and then discharge it overboard through the sewage system.

This method bypassed the ship’s oily water separator, resulting in the direct discharge of oily bilge water into the sea. The discharges were reportedly not entered in the vessel’s Oil Record Book.

In the subsequent phase of the violations, fresh water was introduced into the oily water separator system in order to manipulate the oil content monitor while oily bilge water was being discharged overboard. This created the appearance that the discharge was within the applicable legal limits.

The incident came to light during two port calls by MSC Samira III at the Port of Philadelphia in January 2025. Irregularities were identified following an inspection of the Oil Record Book presented by the crew to the U.S. Coast Guard.

As part of the case, the vessel’s Second Engineer, Mikhail Tsurikov, had previously pleaded guilty to violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships. Tsurikov is scheduled to be sentenced on September 10.