The city of Monterey, California, has permanently banned the Crystal Harmony cruise ship from docking in its bay after the ship’s owners, Crystal Cruises, confessed to dumping more than 36,000 gallons of wastewater in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, home to 27 species of marine mammals. The incident occurred in early October but wasn’t reported until last week, after state water regulators requested a quarterly report. Company spokesperson Michael Coleman said Crystal Cruises had a “wonderful, wonderful track record” on the environment and claimed the officer on duty the night of the discharge “simply failed to remember that we were in the middle of the sanctuary.” In 2001, Crystal was one of six cruise lines that settled charges concerning excessive smokestack emissions off Juneau, Alaska.
