The Eckerd College chapter of the Coastal Society has been working to clean up coastal environments on and around our beautiful campus! Eckerd College is a small liberal arts college in St. Petersburg Florida sitting on the beautiful Gulf coast. Eckerd College has a small but environmentally conscious student body. The coastal and marine environment proves to be a major draw for Eckerd College students. With over a mile of coastline on our campus alone, students are constantly interacting with the coastal environment. The campus waterfront, situated on Frenchman’s creek near the opening into Tampa Bay, allows students to make regular kayak trips, swimming breaks, and even sailboat rides straight from the school. Service and volunteer work within the community is a high priority for our students, and even part of our graduation requirements. The Coastal Society is just one important group on campus that includes a variety of volunteer outreach opportunities. As the first undergraduate program to have a Coastal Society chapter, it provides a great resource and opportunity for students.
Our first beach cleanup of the year took place last semester and was set at Fort DeSoto, a Pinellas county park with some of the most beautiful beaches in the area. This natural area is the largest park in the county, with 1,136 acres of land comprised of 5 interconnected islands. Not only is this a popular area for tourists and locals looking to soak up the sun, but it is also a permanently protected area by the state. Even though the park has full time staff to manage the area, they still need volunteers to help keep the area clean. Eckerd’s chapter of TCS joined with the managers last semester to spend one Saturday cleaning up one of the most popular beaches. This area remains a high priority for managers due to it’s close proximity to a bird sanctuary, where numerous shore nesting species are protected.
At the start of the Spring semester, we held our second cleanup event on our own campus. A large percentage of Eckerd College students live on campus all four years, making recruiting additional volunteers easy on such a beautiful, sunny Saturday afternoon. While our student body does it’s best to help keep our campus clean, garbage still gets strewn along our coastlines from incoming surf and thoughtless litterbugs. The volunteers set out to pick up debris along the beaches and in the mangroves on campus. By the end of a few hours, the volunteers had collected 6 full garbage bags and a full size-recycling bin of waste.
Both of these cleanups have not only helped benefit our community’s coastal areas, but also have helped spread the word about what The Coastal Society is and the kinds of things we are involved in. Finding like-minded individuals, who not only work in coastal communities, but also care about the environment that they work in can be extremely beneficial to all parties involved. Eckerd College’s chapter hopes to do more of these kinds of cleanups soon, and keep spreading the word! ?
By: Meg Gardner, Environmental Programs Coordinator for the Oregon State Marine Board (TCS Communications Subcommittee Member).
When most people think of marine debris, they think old fishing gear, plastic bags, or cigarette butts. But another category of debris exists that challenges coastal managers throughout the U.S. – abandoned and derelict vessels (ADV’s). This term covers anything from a 10-foot aluminum dingy left on a public boat ramp all the way up to a 100-foot former commercial fishing vessel with barrels of unknown hazardous materials onboard and anchored out on a river. Typically, an abandoned vessel is defined as one that has been left without authorization on public or private lands, and a derelict vessel is one that is sinking, sunk, leaking pollution, or a threat to public health and safety.
This vessel fell apart soon after being removed, evidence of its poor conditions. The vessel in the feature image of this article had to be contained due to leaking oil and then removed. Photo Credit: Oregon State Marine Board
Vessels become abandoned and/or derelict for many reasons, which can vary from state to state; however, most states still share many similar challenges when it comes to preventing and removing these vessels. For example, keeping track of ownership of a vessel as it changes hands between people can be difficult, especially if new owners do not know the registration or titling requirements of their home state. Most people do not think about the end of their vessel’s useful life when they first buy a boat. As a vessel ages and does not receive the maintenance it needs, it can become a liability. New owners with “boat dreams” may buy a secondhand vessel and do not fully realize the amount of money or skill required to make a vessel run well again. These situations can lead to more boat ownership transfers and eventually abandonment.
Some abandoned or derelict boats are located in challenging locations. Oregon State Marine Board removed this boat by dismantling it in place through an inmate work crew. Photo Credit: Oregon State Marine Board
Abandoned and derelict vessels are a concern for many reasons. They can impact the environment through petroleum spills, leaks of hazardous materials or sewage, and they can break apart and become debris fields. These vessels can also impact navigation and safety if they are drifting freely or lurking just under the water out-of-sight. They might be beached near shore where they prevent water users from accessing certain areas. Likewise, these vessels can become a site of illegal activity such as dumping or drug use, especially if they are in remote or rural areas.
In Oregon, once a vessel has been identified as abandoned or derelict, an enforcement agency (such as a law enforcement body or public agency) can start the seizure process, which can lead to removal, storage, and disposal of the vessel. The last known registered owner remains responsible for an abandoned or derelict vessel and liable for any costs incurred by the enforcement agency for removal. However, if the State does not have enough funding to front the costs of removal and disposal, a boat may remain where it is for years, especially because most owners do not have the resources to pay for a boat’s removal or are unknown because its ownership is difficult to trace.
A vessel is removed in Oregon State waters. Photo Credit: Oregon State Marine Board
Depending on the size, hull material, location, or debris onboard a vessel, removal can be a challenging and expensive process. Large vessels, commercial vessels, vessels with steel or concrete hulls, or sunken vessels are examples that can cost a significant amount of money to remove and dispose. The average cost of an abandoned recreational boat (under 30ft) is about $3,500 in Oregon, while some vessels that the State has yet to remove are estimated to cost several thousand or hundreds of thousands of dollars. In some cases, there are known derelict vessels that may cost several million dollars to remove, which far exceeds the current budget allocated to these removals and would take a special allocation of funds from the state or federal legislature.
Obviously, not having a funding stream proportionate to the problem is a common challenge for most states. Having appropriate legislation or an established ADV program are also important in being able to combat the issue of abandoned and derelict vessels. Oregon’s ADV legislation and program were established in 2004. An update in 2013, streamlined the process of vessel seizure and clarified definitions. However, some of our regional partners do not have established programs, such as Alaska or British Columbia, which can greatly hinder the government’s ability to respond to ADV issues.
Prevention is another key issue in addressing ADV’s, which can come in many forms. One tactic that has shown promise in many states, including in Oregon, is a Vessel Turn-in Program. This is a program in which owners with older vessels they do not want anymore, or marinas who have ended up with abandoned vessels can turn their vessels over to the state (or other public body) and have the boat disposed of at no cost to them. The details of this type of program vary by state but the concept is the same across the board – prevent vessels that are older or in poor condition from entering the water and becoming abandoned or derelict down the road. These programs help to reduce the cost of removing ADV’s and have shown there is great demand for an inexpensive boat disposal option. While this program shows great promise in Oregon, lack of funding to support the demand remains a limitation.
A vessel in the process of getting dismantled. It was turned over through the Vessel Turn-in Program, a prevention program in Oregon where boat owners and marinas can turn over an older boat to be disposed of properly so it will not become an abandoned or derelict vessel. Photo Credit: Oregon State Marine Board
A new effort happening in Oregon now is a Task Force focused on prevention and removal funding ideas specific to abandoned and derelict commercial vessels on the coast. Commercial vessels can be much more challenging and expensive to remove than recreational vessels because of their size, associated equipment, and potential for hazardous waste and pollution. While the Oregon State Marine Board removes both categories of vessels, removal funding comes solely from recreational boater registration and titling fees and is insufficient to adequately deal with commercial vessels. This group of stakeholders is meeting now to try to think through ways to prevent abandoned and derelict commercial vessels and potentially fund their removals through additional means than what currently exists.
Meg Gardner managesthe abandoned and derelict vessel removal program, clean marina and clean boater programs, and the foam encapsulation certification program for the Oregon State Marine Board, a recreational boating agency. She also serves as the agency representative on a number of groups for marine debris planning and removal, small oil spill prevention, and derelict vessel management. She has been at the Marine Board since May 2015.
Editors’ Note: This is a ubiquitous issue in all coastal states. One resource to learn how other coastal states are managing ADV’s is the symposium proceedings from the National Working Waterfronts and Waterways Symposium in 2015. They had a session devoted to how different states are handing this issue showing there is a variety of approaches. See presentations from Washington State and Florida.
Eckerd College has a small but environmentally conscious student body. The coastal and marine environment proves to be a major draw for Eckerd College students. With over a mile of coastline on our campus alone, students are constantly interacting with the coastal environment. The campus waterfront, situated on Frenchman’s creek near the opening into Tampa Bay, allows students to make regular kayak trips, swimming breaks, and even sailboat rides straight from the school. Service and volunteer work within the community is a high priority for our students, and even part of our graduation requirements. 
The Coastal Society is just one important group on campus that includes a variety of volunteer outreach opportunities. As the first undergraduate program to have a Coastal Society chapter, it provides a great resource and opportunity for students.
The volunteers set out to pick up debris along the beaches and in the mangroves on campus. By the end of a few hours, the volunteers had collected 6 full garbage bags and a full size-recycling bin of waste.
