Unix Line has pleaded guilty in a US court to charges of illegally dumping oily bilge water, the US Justice Department (DoJ) has confirmed.

In pleading guilty, Unix Line admitted that its crew members on board the 26,200-dwt Zao Galaxy (built 2012) knowingly failed to record the overboard discharges without the use of the required pollution-prevention equipment.

US officials said the vessel, which had sailed from the Philippines with a cargo of palm oil arrived in California on 11 February 2019, where it underwent a US Coast Guard (USCG) inspection and examination.