Princess Cruise Lines, a unit of Carnival Corp., pleaded guilty in federal court on Monday in the 2001 death of a pregnant humpback whale in Alaska's Glacier Bay National Park. The company agreed to pay a US$200,000 fine and criminal restitution of US$550,000 to the nonprofit National Park Foundation for violating a law that mandates safe ship operation when endangered whales are present.

The fine and restitution were paid Monday after US Magistrate Judge John Roberts accepted the plea and sentencing agreement. The case concerned a whale, killed by massive head trauma, that was found floating in Glacier Bay. Circumstantial evidence pointed to a Princess ship, the Dawn Princess, as the vessel that struck and killed the whale, according to the plea agreement filed by the US Attorney's office.

The whale was well known in Glacier Bay, where it had lived since at least the mid-1970s. Biologists had nicknamed the whale "Snow," according to park officials. While Princess was not specifically charged with killing the animal, the cruise line admitted that its ship traveled too fast and carelessly around humpback whales, a violation of both the US Marine Mammal Protection Act and the US Endangered Species Act. It pleaded guilty to one criminal count of "failing to operate at a slow, safe speed when near humpback whales."

Dean Brown, a vice president for Princess, said the company has improved operations since 2001 to better protect whales, imposing a fleetwide speed limit and other precautions. He said the plea agreement reflects that progress. Glacier Bay National Park in Southeastern Alaska is a popular destination for cruise ships, and the presence of whales is one draw for cruise line passengers.

Once hunted aggressively, humpback whales number about 20,000 across the globe, according to federal officials. Only 6,000 of the animals migrate in the summer to the North Pacific, according to officials.
(Por Yereth Rosen, Planet Ark, 31/01/2007)