The captain of a luxury yacht here for the Bermuda Heroes holiday weekend, found himself in Magistrates’ Court, where he was fined $8,000 for dumping sewage into St George’s Harbour.
Marc Pearson, 38, who appeared in court yesterday, admitted to discharging sewage in a no-discharge zone and leaving a seacock valve — intended to control the release of sewage — open in an incident on Monday.
He apologised to the court and said steps had been taken to ensure that it would not happen again.
This after a government environmental engineer received a video that appeared to show the 80ft Zanabe releasing sewage near Ordnance Island.
It is illegal for boats to discharge sewage into local waters within 500 metres of the high-water mark of the nearest land or anywhere within the Great Sound, the Little Sound, Granaway Deep, Hamilton Harbour, Harrington Sound, Castle Harbour, St George’s Harbour or areas declared protected under the Fisheries (Protected Areas) Order.
The maximum penalty for both offences was $5,000.
Magistrate Maxanne Anderson fined Pearson $4,000 for both offences.
