Lloyd’s List

May 11, 2010

Letter to the Editor

With the destruction of the BP oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico and resultant spill, I see a tragic and outrageous irony.  Here we prosecute seafarers and ship owners for relatively minor pollution infractions when BP’s Deepwater Horizon, Transocean and Halliburton so far face no criminal investigations or charges for their negligence for this extraordinary destruction of the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem.  None of them take responsibility for making bad, careless decisions regarding safety in this drilling project.  And, in fact, government regulators have been their enablers, as reported by the New York Times on May 9^th, by not holding BP accountable for its poor record of safety.

The DOJ spends millions prosecuting seafarers and ship owners while oil companies and their allies seem to get a free pass.  A case in point is the failed prosecution of Chief Engineer Ioannis Mylonakis on the MT Georgios M.  He was accused of using a magic pipe to dispose of oily water sludge while at sea.  His company pled guilty to the charges and then assisted the government in prosecuting him.  As reported in Lloyd’s List (April 28, 2010), he was acquitted. Now his company Stygna Compania Naviere is upset that he might sue them (Lloyd’s List May 7, 2010).  The secret in the industry is that many oily water separator systems do not work as they should and seafarers have become the collateral victims of these prosecutions.

My question is: Who is causing the greatest harm?  Evidently, seafarers based on US government prosecutions - the most vulnerable and least powerful.  I would suggest that DOJ should suspend investigations against seafarers and target the real culprits who are destroying our oceans.

I share all this because over a four year period of time, we at Seamen's Church Institute of Philadelphia worked intensively with 12 detained crews for pollution violation investigations.  Most of these seafarers were detained for over 8 months and as long as 18 months.  The DOJ's investigations moved very slowly and the process was not transparent to the seafarers, causing great uncertainty with them.  Unable to work or go home to see their families, many were greatly depressed.   This process has been an abuse of their dignity and need to work once again.  Chief Engineer Ioannis Mylonakis on the MT Georgios M is simply the latest victim.

The Rev. Canon James D. Von Dreele

Executive Director of the Seamen’s Church Institute of Philadelphia & South Jersey

Chaplain to the Port Philadelphia & South Jersey

Board member of the North American Marine Environment Protection Association, IMO

vondreele@sciphiladelphia.org

www.sciphiladelphia.org