Mexican Ship Manager Gremex Shipping Fined $1.75 Million in Pollution Case

On October 30, Gremex Shipping, a Tampico, Mexican ship manager, pleaded guilty in the Federal District Court in Pensacola, Florida, to felony violations of the Pollution Prevention and Control Act (APPS) and was fined $1.75 million and sentenced to probation.

Specifically, Gremex was accused of creating and submitting false records to the U.S. Coast Guard to cover up the illegal discharge of bilge oil waste into the ocean by the M/V Suhar, a vessel it operated.

The charge stems from a Coast Guard investigation into the vessel following its arrival in Pensacola on August 25, 2023. The Sohar is a Panamanian-flagged, 7,602 gross ton ocean-going bulk carrier that regularly transports cement from Tampico, Mexico to Pensacola.

Since March 2021, the day-to-day operations of the vessel have been the responsibility of Gremex, which is responsible for hiring the entire crew and ensuring compliance with all environmental protection policies that meet international standards. After boarding the vessel to determine compliance with all applicable laws, Coast Guard personnel determined that the vessel’s crew routinely discharged untreated oily bilge water onto the vessel to evade pollution control equipment and then falsified the vessel’s oil log to conceal those discharges.

Consistent with the government and Gremex’s joint sentencing recommendation, the court ordered the company to pay a $1.75 million fine, serve four years of probation, and agree to develop and implement an environmental compliance plan, which will be on the company’s probationary period.