It's a recurring nightmare for environmentalists and government agencies: Worn down boats wash ashore in environmentally sensitive areas, with nobody to pay to clean them up.
Last Thursday at Point Conception was another such nightmare. A multi-agency crew worked tirelessly to excavate an abandoned sailboat stuck in the sand. It took hours to dislodge the boat — and dispose of all the junk and gunk that came with it.
“I pulled out an eight-gallon fuel canister," said Harry Rabin, nonprofit Heal the Ocean’s (HTO) field and research advisor. “Wrecks like these pollute, kill everything, and release all this toxic stuff — fuel, lithium batteries — it adds up and does damage. And it keeps happening.”
