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Parks Department floats new initiative to crush NYC’s abandoned, derelict boats
By
Catalina Gonella
Published Apr 16, 2024
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Catalina Gonella/Gothamist
By
Catalina Gonella
Published Apr 16, 2024
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The city Parks Department made a splashy announcement Monday when it introduced a new office devoted to literally crushing an ongoing problem in the city’s waterways: abandoned boats.
The new Office of Marine Debris Disposal and Vessel Surrendering will be tasked with keeping New York City’s waterfront clear of marine hazards, namely, derelict boats. It will also launch a vessel turn-in program through which New Yorkers will be able to surrender their unwanted boats instead of abandoning them, which is expected to be up and running by next summer, officials said.
Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue made the announcement at Brooklyn’s Kingsborough Community College, standing in front of a hanging, dilapidated, derelict boat, with Sheepshead Bay as the backdrop.
“People are abandoning boats, leaving them, creating debris that we know is negative for marine life, that has a negative impact on the environment,” Donoghue said. “So it's really important for these coastal communities like Jamaica Bay, like in these areas, that we are making sure that we're taking care of the waterfront.”
In a demonstration of the work the office will carry out, a worker driving a bulldozer later crushed an abandoned vessel, using a claw attachment to break it apart and dump the pieces into a dumpster. Officials cheered as the boat chunks clattered into the massive metal bin.
There are more than 800 such derelict boats along New York City’s 520 miles of shore, according to the Parks Department. These abandoned vessels pose a number of problems both to other boaters and the environment, said Chief of Citywide Waterfront and Marine Operations Nate Grove.
“We're truly a city of water, and this issue of derelict, abandoned vessels and other marine debris — it's incumbent upon us to be more proactive in dealing with it,” Grove said. “It's not only a navigational and an eyesore, it's a hazard to our environment. The leaking fluids, the microplastics that leach out of these fiberglass hulls. It’s an issue for our ecosystem, as well as for our recreational boating community.”
The office — the first of its kind in the state — was created via a City Council law passed in 2022 and is funded through 2025 with $1 million dollars from Mayor Eric Adams, according to the Parks Department.
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Catalina Gonella
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