Washington-based East West Seafoods LLC and its majority owner were sentenced in federal court Tuesday in Anchorage for dumping oil and raw sewage into the ocean off the coast of Alaska, prosecutors announced.
The seafood processor was ordered to pay $50,000 for violating pollution and clean water regulations, stemming from the intentional discharge of oil and sewage, and then lying about it to the U.S. Coast Guard by providing false records.
Prosecutors detailed two separate instances in which the fishing vessel Pacific Producer – operated by Kodiak resident Christos Tsabouris, who owns three-fourths of East West Seafoods – polluted Alaska waters. Pacific Producer is a 169-foot processing vessel built in 1946.
On March 15, 2013, the ship was traveling from Kodiak and grounded near the Ouzinkie Narrows, not far from the city of Kodiak. That's where "the defendants unlawfully discharged approximately 1,000 gallons of raw sewage into Chiniak Bay between Long Island and Spruce Island," prosecutors said.
Later that month, a "harmful amount of oil" was discharged from the Pacific Producer within 3 miles of shoreline in the same area, prosecutors said.
Coast Guard officials boarded the ship in late January 2014 and spotted several issues, such as raw sewage piping onto its open weather deck and into the water, court records show.
East West Seafoods was placed on probation for five years, meaning the company can continue to operate, but it will face heightened levels of scrutiny. Warrantless searches of the company's vessels and places of business are allowed during the probation period if officials have a reasonable suspicion laws are being broken.
Tsabouris, 78, was also sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine, prosecutors said.
Within that period, he must complete at least two courses related to marine pollution and environmental protection, proper disposal of sewage, bilge water and waste oil, recordkeeping, or vessel engineering systems, prosecutors said.