Whistle-Blowers Help U.S. Fight Ocean Dumping

Excerpt from an article in The New York Times
Monday, February 13, 2012

Whistle-Blowers Help U.S. Fight Ocean Dumping 

By THEO EMERY

BALTIMORE — Nothing seemed amiss aboard the Maltese cargo ship Aquarosa when Chief Warrant Officer William D. Dodson and his Coast Guard inspection team climbed the gangway. It was a crisp Sunday morning, the day after the new vessel had berthed to load scrap metal in its first visit to the United States.

That sense of normalcy evaporated after the chief engineer led the way below for tests of the rudder and fire pump. There, a crew member named Salvador Lopez nervously tugged a note from his pocket and thrust it toward Mr. Dodson. He had something to share, the note read. A secret.

Mr. Lopez’s secret was that the ship had been illegally dumping oily water and sludge overboard, and he had proof: hundreds of photographs stored on his phone. Partly because of Mr. Lopez’s evidence, two companies that owned and operated the ship pleaded guilty last month to obstruction of justice and other charges and agreed to pay $1.2 million each in penalties and fines.

And for his sleuthing, Mr. Lopez stands to collect as much as $925,000.

Seafaring whistle-blowers, frequently seeking a financial bounty, have become one of prosecutors’ most potent weapons against maritime polluters, providing the backbone for a growing number of cases the federal government has pursued in Baltimore and other port cities across the country.