German shipowner pays more than AU$1 million fine for oil spill

German shipowner pays more than AU$1 million fine for oil spill    German Shipmaster Erhard Heinz Schuschan and shipping company Reederei Suderelbe GmbH & Co., Schiffahrts Kg (RSS) were ordered by Australia’s Melbourne Magistrates’ Court this week to pay more than AU$1 million (about $731,000) in fines, clean-up expenses, environmental projects and legal costs for an oil spill.
   According to the Australian government, the company must also publish details of its offenses in local, state, national and international publications.
   Both parties in the case pleaded guilty to a combined total of four charges related to an early 2003 oil spill. The court heard that the parties were responsible for one of Victoria’s most significant environmental incidents in recent years when a large quantity of oil from the vessel “ANL Pioneer” washed ashore at Woolamai and Kilcunda.
   The incident occurred when the vessel was en route to Sydney and discharged up to 40,000 liters of waste oil sludge from its ballast water tanks into Bass Strait.