4 more decaying boats removed from Snohomish County shores

EVERETT — About 35,000 pounds of marine debris and toxic materials were removed from Snohomish County shorelines this year.

The county’s Marine Resource Committee finished extracting its fourth abandoned vessel of the year in late September, putting the total count at 20 vessels, or 175,000 pounds of debris, removed since 2018.

The washed-up boats damage sensitive ecosystems, crushing beds of eelgrass or kelp, slowly breaking apart and leaving fiberglass, oils and sometimes asbestos in their wake.

Elisa Dawson, senior planner for the county’s Surface Water Management division, explained the neglected boats kill off essential food sources for marine life.

“Snohomish Estuary is a really critical habitat, especially for salmon,” Dawson said. “It’s impacting the food chain all the way down to the very bottom.”

This year, the committee removed four boats, including a half-submerged 63-foot Navy crash boat on the north side of Steamboat Slough. Crash boats were World War II-era, high-speed boats used to save downed aircraft pilots and crew. The Navy sold off most of these boats after the war. There weren’t any numbers or names on the boat for the committee to identify the last known owner, so they deemed it derelict.

The other three abandoned vessels were a 32-foot sailboat located inland from Smith Island; a 32-foot recreational cruiser on the west side of Jetty Island; and a 20-foot recreational boat north of Hawkes Marina.

It cost $143,500 to remove the four boats.

In 2017, the committee first received a grant from the Puget Sound Partnership to remove derelict vessels. Some boats demand more money — like the Midas, a 100-foot WWII-era fishing boat that cost contractors $400,000 to remove.

In April 2021, Everett couple Phil and Kelly Johnson donated $50,000 to a partner of the Marine Resources Committee after reading a Daily Herald article. Their donation nearly doubled the committee’s budget.

Between funding, tides and weather windows, derelict vessel removal is a slow process, taking one to three months for each boat on average.

The boats are then disassembled. Pieces are sent to one of three places: the recycling center, the landfill or the hazardous waste facility.

“Everyone is very curious about how these boats end up here, and they all have their own story,” Dawson said, listing myriad ways a boat can become derelict: a storm, the death of an owner, and so on. “But ultimately they ended up somewhere they’re not supposed to be.”

And then they became an eyesore and a safety hazard for people and marine life. Removing the vessels makes us “better stewards of the environment,” Dawson said.

“Taking out the marine debris is straightforward,” she said. “We go, we take out the vessels, and it’s done. It’s a rewarding difference.”

Kayla Dunn: 425-339-3449; kayla.dunn@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @KaylaJ_Dunn.