The city of Oakland and several nonprofits are collaborating to clean up the Oakland estuary, which is home to more than 40 sunken or derelict vessels.<\/p>\n
ABC7 News anchor Dan Ashley joined organizer Mary Spicer and Skipper Ken Mannshardt as they sailed through the Oakland estuary looking for the sunken boats. Within a few minutes of moving down the estuary from Jack London Square, it started looking like something out of Pirates of the Caribbean. Boats, big and small, sank or half-sunk along the length of the estuary. Spicer pointed out a large sailboat listing on its side, which neighbors say has been disabled for months.<\/p>\n
“It was actually anchored in the center of the channel for quite some time. A lot of our community members reported it,” she said.<\/p>\n
Spicer is an organizer with the environmental group, “I Heart Oakland-Alameda Estuary.” Joined by other community organizations like the East Bay Rowing Club and California Canoe and Kayak, volunteers have staged huge volunteer clean-ups. Fanning out across the estuary with a literal Navy of skiffs, kayaks, and paddleboards, clear debris and trash.<\/p>\n
But over the last several years, Spicer and her group have also mapped more than 40 sunken or derelict vessels, each with its own backstory, but one thing in common: they’re now swamped in the Oakland estuary, often with gasoline and sewage still on board.<\/p>\n
One of the big problems they point to is what’s called anchor-outs. Boats that are illegally anchored out away from the marinas. Current law restricts anchoring out in Oakland waterways to 12 hours over a seven-day period. Many of the vessels are in poor condition and often end up abandoned. Skipper Ken Mannshardt says they’re especially vulnerable to storms.<\/p>\n
“A lot of them get dragged loose and they come down, they end up, hitting other boats or going ashore. They regularly sink,” he says.<\/p>\n
In fact, using an underwater camera, they were able to quickly locate the submerged buoy rope from a sunken boat. A line that could easily wrap around the propeller of an unsuspecting vessel.<\/p>\n
“Some of them are just straight down under the water and you don’t know they’re there,” says Spicer, who adds that unsuspecting boats have collided with the sunken wrecks in the past.<\/p>\n
The problem has been building for years and is now well beyond anything a volunteer clean-up can impact. But not giving up, the I Heart Oakland-Alameda Estuary teamed with the City of Oakland, ultimately securing a $3 million grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Debris Program. Money that will soon pay for a marine salvage company to begin removing the sunken and abandoned vessels.<\/p>\n
Daniel Hamilton is the Chief Resilience Officer for the City of Oakland, which is already making preparations.<\/p>\n
“And so we got together and said, what could be the biggest, grandest plan we could present to them for doing this? And through that partnership, we developed a really ambitious plan to remove those vessels, both the floating and sunken vessels, and clean up the estuary with the use of volunteers along the side to do this. It’s the largest grant they have ever provided for urban marine debris removal in their history,” Hamilton adds.<\/p>\n
And a victory for volunteers working so hard to clean up the estuary. Especially kayakers and rowers like Carla Jourdan, who cherish their time on the water.<\/p>\n
“That’s exactly it. You know, years and years of talking and pleading and trying to get this to work and doing these things for free. It is a victory to actually have acknowledgment and a little bit of money behind getting, you know, helping continue the cleanup,” says Jourdan.<\/p>\n
Oakland had also been under pressure from state agencies, including the Bay Conservation and Development Commission, to find a solution, so volunteers say the grant comes at a good time.<\/p>\n
“And I think that it’s everybody’s voice being heard. But I’m so grateful that we’ve been in the city of Oakland. Listen to I Heart Oakland, Alameda Estuary. I feel like it’s a real opportunity to potentially create a long-term solution,” says Spicer.<\/p>\n
And if you want to help with the lighter side of the Estuary clean-up, the I-Heart group is looking for volunteers this Saturday at the Jack London Aquatic Center. Follow the link below to register.<\/p>\n