Abandoned vessels have littered New York City’s waters for centuries, but after the 2008 recession and Hurricane Sandy the problem became especially acute.
As many as 600 abandoned boats were scattered around the city. Some broke loose during storms like Hurricane Sandy, but others were intentionally abandoned when their owners could no longer afford them.
The City of New York does not have a budget to remove the vessels, but Nate Grove, the chief of waterfront and marine operations at the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation has managed to get about 300 boats off the city’s shorelines over the past seven years.
“The waters around the city haven’t been this clean since the Civil War,” Grove told the New York Times in an interview, “and I’m determined to help keep it that way.”
