A court in the US has rewarded a tip to inspectors about illegal discharge practices.

A crew member from a Leif Hoegh-controlled bulk carrier has been awarded a $300,000 pay-out by a US court for alerting ship inspectors to illegal discharge practices taking place on his vessel last year.

A statement from the US Department of Justice United States Attorney for the Western District of Washington said the illegal dumping on the ship came to light after the whistle-blower secretly passed a note to Coast Guard inspectors describing the illegal activity taking place onboard the 44,000-dwt bulk carrier Hoegh Minerva(built 1979).

An investigation in Vancouver led to the discovery of the so-called “magic pipe” that was used to bypass the oily water separator and dump waste oil directly into the sea.

The unnamed crew member also revealed to inspectors that at least four Hoegh car carriers had been using the same system.

The statement said the US Attorneys for Western Washington, Northern and Central Districts of California “applauded the courageous actions of a crew member aboard the M/V Hoegh Minerva“.

The cash pay-out was detailed as Hoegh was officially sentenced to pay the $3.5m fine for seven felony charges relating to the falsification of records concealing the intentional dumping of waste oil into the ocean. Hoegh first learned about its $3.5m fine in March. The company was also placed under a four-year court probation.

The Hoegh Minerva’s second engineer, Vincent Genovana, agreed to co-operate with the government in its investigation. In February he was sentenced to 30 days in custody followed by two years of supervised release.

Hoegh pleaded guilty and the owner’s management subsidiary, Hoegh Fleet Services, agreed to implement a comprehensive environmental compliance plan for its 38 ships that call regularly in the US.

Some $1.6m of the fine will be used to fund environmental projects that benefit coastal ecosystems of Washington and California.

A Hoegh spokesman tells Tradewinds the company is implementing the compliance programme and has upgraded equipment across the whole fleet in order to avoid a repeat of the episode.