Cruise Ship Reportedly Seen Spewing Black Smoke Over Cayman Islands

In a photograph taken earlier this week, by an individual who wishes to remain anonymous, the Carnival Freedom can be seen belching out a cloud of dense, black smoke upon arrival in George Town, Grand Cayman.

The twelve-year-old Carnival vessel departed Galveston, Texas, on the evening of October 27 and arrived in George Town on Tuesday morning, according to Cruise Law News.

The unnamed photographer reported that Carnival Freedom had just arrived in George Town and was about to redirect to the anchorage area when it began smoking heavily from the exhaust stacks.

Carnival Freedom Belches Smoke in Cayman Islands https://t.co/SsvhZxLj07 @CarnivalPLC @CarnivalCruise air #pollution #dirtyships @KendraUlrich @standearth @cleanupcarnival @Standearth pic.twitter.com/BCmCV9q2Pe

— James (Jim) Walker (@CruiseLaw) November 3, 2019

The incident recalls a similar scene from summer 2019, wherein Carnival’s air pollution being was caught on camera by a live-feed webcam installed over the Port of Nassau in the Bahamas, which showed the Carnival Victory spewing similarly thick, black smoke over the port for around an hour. Webcam operator PTZtv, tweeted a portion of the video with the caption: “no smoke without...? –– hard to imagine anything good happening here.”

#CarnivalVictory "no smoke without ...?" -- hard to imagine anything good happening here. https://t.co/EJRqRrPlWx around 4:25pm EDT on Sunday 7/28/2019 pic.twitter.com/h7kf61RvmR

— PTZtv (@PTZtv) July 28, 2019

Regarding this most recent emissions episode in Grand Cayman, a Carnival representative provided TravelPulse the following statement: "While sailing into Port Grand Cayman last week, Carnival Freedom emitted dark smoke from the funnel. This was related to a malfunction of an engine turbocharger. That engine was quickly shut down and the smoke ceased. Our environmental team was immediately notified and technicians worked quickly to complete the necessary repairs. This issue did not affect the ship’s ability to operate."

Unfortunately, Carnival Corporation has been found in violation of air emission laws more than once over the past several years while already on probation, owing to a history of environmental infractions. In the last three years alone, the U.S. Department of Justice saw fit to levy record-high fines against Carnival Corporation, totaling $60 million.

Judge Seitz just scheduled a hearing for December 19, 2019, in the U.S. Government’s case against Carnival Corporation to address “compliance challenges,” including incidents logged in Carnival’s Quarterly Tracking Chart filings, pertaining to air emissions, dumping of non-food items (including plastics) in food waste and discharges of other prohibited waste streams, including garbage, ballast water, black water (sewage), grey water, oil and oily waste products.