{"id":371145,"date":"2026-06-23T05:19:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T05:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/371145\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T05:19:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T05:19:17","slug":"illegally-docked-boats-debris-impacting-oakland-youth-rowing-group-east-bay-rowing-club-as-summer-camp-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/371145\/","title":{"rendered":"\ufeffIllegally docked boats, debris impacting Oakland youth rowing group East Bay Rowing Club as summer camp begins"},"content":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) — An East Bay rowing program is raising concerns after illegally docked boats and debris prevented young athletes from getting on the water at the start of a summer camp Monday.<\/p>\n

Leaders with the East Bay Rowing Club<\/a> say boats moored along the Oakland Estuary near Jack London Square – along with items dumped on the docks – created unsafe conditions, forcing students in the “Learn to Row” camp to stay on land.<\/p>\n

“It’s really frustrating,” said 18-year-old student Moss Rieven, who is volunteering with the club this summer.<\/p>\n

Instead of launching from the dock on the first day, participants used rowing machines because they could not access the estuary.<\/p>\n

“I think its unfortunate because this is the time for people to learn what the sport is like and get out on the water and experience what I got to do for 3 years so. So it’s kind of a bummer, yeah,” Rieven said.<\/p>\n

Club officials say the problem stems from ongoing illegal mooring and dumping activity along the docks by the Jack London Aquatic Center, where some people have been sheltering on boats.<\/p>\n

“This boat here is sinking. You can see it moving forward,” said Heather Krakora, executive director of the East Bay Rowing Club.<\/p>\n

“You can’t be on the dock for longer than 4 hours. So they’ve been on the dock here since Friday evening,” Krakora said.<\/p>\n

MORE: Illegal dumping in Berkeley a ‘nightmare’ when students move out: How Cal program aims to curb it<\/a><\/p>\n

The club says the issue poses safety risks, particularly for novice rowers navigating around large vessels.<\/p>\n

“It causes a navigational hazard – especially for young rowers who are learning to row and steer because these boats are large,” Krakora said.<\/p>\n

Some are calling for increased enforcement from the city. “This is not being enforced. There’s only one dedicated Oakland police department marine patrol officer. That’s not enough,” said Brock de Lappe, a former harbormaster. Residents who use the waterway say the problem extends beyond the rowing program.<\/p>\n

“It’s disappointing. Dumping is a problem all over Oakland including the waterways,” said Joe Morgan, who was paddle-boarding Monday. “It’s sad. It’s important for kids to spend time out in the water,” Morgan said. “It’s too bad they cant get out there because of something that somebody did.”<\/p>\n

ABC7 reached out to the City of Oakland and the Oakland Police Department for comment but had not received a response.<\/p>\n

The East Bay Rowing Club says it plans to move students to Lake Merritt for the rest of the week and will reassess conditions daily as the situation continues.<\/p>\n

\"Now<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 KGO-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) — An East Bay rowing program is raising concerns after illegally docked boats and debris…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[150365,143,145,144],"class_list":["post-371145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-150365","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}