an oil spill are set to begin legal moves to get it reduced.

The fine was handed out at Magistrates' Court on Wednesday to the captain of the Atlantic Forest for spilling "hundreds'' of gallons of oil at Five Fathom Hole, one and a quarter miles off St. David's Head on March 2.

Senior Magistrate Will Francis said he wanted the fine to act as a tough deterrent to other ships entering Bermuda because pollution could ravage the Island's fragile reefs and harm the tourist trade.

But the ship's owners, New Orleans-based LCI Shipholdings Inc., feel the fine is "manifestly excessive'' and are preparing to appeal to have it reduced.

The company's lawyer Trevor Moniz said that in light of a decision last Friday by Chief Justice Austin Ward to reduce a fine imposed on the captain of the Pascale Delmas for an oil spill from $30,000 to $7,500, the $40,000 penalty imposed on the Atlantic Forest was too high.

Mr. Moniz said he was expecting to receive instructions from the company's lawyer in New York to lodge an appeal within the next week.

The fine, and Mr. Francis' hard-hitting message to other ship-owners, was welcomed by Environment Minister Arthur Hodgson as an encouraging sign that magistrates are taking Bermuda's environment seriously.

Mr. Moniz said Junior Crown counsel Veronica Daley had compared the two pollution cases and called for a similarly tough fine to be handed to Bengt Magnusson, the captain of the Atlantic Forest , as the one imposed on the captain of the Pascale Delmas . In the latter case, a clean-up operation in November last year costing $30,000 was paid for by the ship's owners. In this week's case, no clean-up was needed as the oil slick, said to measure half a mile by two miles, drifted away from the shore.

Mr. Moniz said: "I anticipate receiving instructions to lodge an appeal within the next week. The basis is very simple.

"Crown counsel compared this case with the previous case and said the Magistrate should be considering a fine on the same scale as that case, where the fine was $30,000.

"As it turned out, the Chief Justice overturned that fine and reduced it to $7,500. On that basis alone, it would appear that the fine in this case should be lower.

"The rationale would seem overpowering that this should be very severely reduced because it is manifestly excessive in view of the reduction of the other fine.'' After the case ended, Mr. Moniz discovered the earlier fine had been reduced and drew it to the attention of Mr. Francis.

The Magistrate, however, agreed with Mrs. Daley that the Chief Justice had probably taken into account the clean-up costs paid by the other company when reducing the fine.

Appeal: Trevor Moniz