Organizations taking abandoned ships from derelict to underwater habitats

A new effort is being launched to remove long-abandoned vessels from south Mississippi waters.

On average, a boat costs around $30,000 to remove from the water. Usually, taxpayers would need to foot that bill, but thanks to the Gulf of Mexico Alliance and the bipartisan infrastructure law, more than $7 million will go towards removing derelict vessels from the gulf for the next four years.

If you aren’t on the water every day like Department of Marine Resources derelict vessel coordinator and marine patrol Sergeant Roy Lipscomb, you likely have no idea just how many boats are underwater.

“154 vessels have been reported. In the last two years, we have 116 removed,” said Lipscomb. “There is still a lot more out there. They still come in. It’s a continuous process. New vessels sink and other ones are discovered. In any storm events, we get more sunken vessels. We still have sunken vessels from Hurricane Zeta.”

There are many reasons to remove these vessels from their resting places.

“Aside from being an eyesore, it’s a navigational hazard,” he said. “Also, some of the flooding vessels… we’ve found criminal activity involved with them. And these can end up in people’s yards.”

The Department of Marine Resources will work alongside Will Ladnier with Gulf Stream Marine to pull these boats inland and clean them.

“When they sink, they’re usually filled with trash and plastic, but much worse — their tanks are full of diesel,” said Ladnier. “The engine is full of oil. There are batteries with battery acid. And then all the chemicals.. chemical cleaners and things like that. All of that is trapped in the vessel, underwater, where it’s not supposed to be.”

Once the vessel is nothing but the bare-bones, it then goes out to sea and becomes a new home for the fishies.

“When you put it out in the reef zone, it is equivalent to constructing a thousand-acre garden,” Ladnier said.

Mississippi Gulf Fishing Banks will maintain and create artificial reefs for the state.