Abandoned vessels litter state coastal waterways

By TERESA STEPZINSKI | The Times-Union

January 28, 2007

The sailboat and fire-gutted shrimp boat are among an estimated 100 sunken, derelict or abandoned vessels along the 118-mile Georgia coast. The vessels vary from fishing trawlers to recreational boats, construction barges and marine cranes.

"These wrecks can become a major hazard to public safety and the environment," Bennett said. "There also is the cleanup cost if they break up and scatter debris on the beaches or if there is a fuel, oil or chemical spill."

Bennett is mapping the location and cataloging details of each vessel in an ongoing department project to make the state's waters safer.

Many of the shipwrecks and abandoned vessels are in Glynn, McIntosh and Chatham county waters.

"We have eight vessels just in the East Brunswick River alone, of which three rolled over at the dock," Bennett said.

All the vessels are devoid of historic value. Most have been stripped of any usable equipment, and several have broken apart in storms - littering the state's beaches with debris, Bennett said.

Bennett began mapping the sunken and abandoned vessels in August. He is using a handheld global positioning system computer to record the location and other details of each vessel.

The immediate goal of the mapping project is to "make sure that people know these vessels are dangerous and that they should avoid them," Bennett said.

Once the wrecks and derelict vessels are mapped, the coordinates and other information will be available to the public on the department's Web site, he said.

Other data collected by Bennett will be used in an attempt to track down the vessels' owners. The information could lead the state to recouping the cost of removing the vessel.

Dangerous waters

"One of my greatest fears was hitting something in the water that I couldn't see," said Altamaha Riverkeeper James Holland, who was a commercial crabber for 23 years. "I'd be coming in rain and fog and worrying the whole way back to the dock."

"It can tear your gear up real bad if you get in hung up on it. So, we're real good about passing information on to each other about where [wrecks] are. But it really hasn't been a big issue for us," Wallace said.

Wallace said commercial shrimpers rely on nautical maps with known wreck sites pinpointed and sophisticated navigation equipment to steer clear of those problems.

Environmental hazards

Shipwrecks and abandoned vessels pose multiple threats to water quality and the ecosystem - key components of coastal Georgia's multimillion dollar tourist and commercial fishing industries.

"There is always the concern of the fuel cells rupturing or the batteries leaking [corrosive] acid as the vessel breaks up," Bennett said. "But, my biggest fear is that there is some sort of contaminant on board that we don't know about until it leaks out."

A fuel or chemical leak could do massive damage to estuaries and beaches, Holland said.

"A diesel fuel leak close to the marsh by a large shrimp boat or recreational yacht would kill it," he said. "Diesel is one of the worst things that happen to the marsh. There is no idea if or when the marsh would come back from something like that."

The General Assembly last year allocated $180,000 for the removal and cleanup of sunken or derelict vessels. A Savannah company recently received the state contract to remove two vessels in Chatham County that Bennett described as currently the greatest danger to navigation and public safety.

The "Treasure D" is a 65-foot shrimp boat that sank and rolled over on its side in the Wilmington River. Its rigging is sticking up out of the water. The other is a sunken construction barge on the bottom of the Ogeechee River at Canoochee Creek. The barge already has been hit by several boats, Bennett said.

Holland lauded the effort and called on the General Assembly to "come up with more money to remove these derelicts."

Proposed law

Finding the wrecks and derelicts is easy compared to finding their owners, Bennett said.

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