A Sunken 25-Foot Boat Costs About $25,000 to Remove
Some boats sink in a hurricane. Some run aground. Some are simply left behind. In the bayous of Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, hundreds of them have been sitting for years with no one and no money to move them.
That is starting to change. The Louisiana Illuminator reported on October 8 that the parish is clearing derelict and abandoned vessels from its waterways to improve environmental and safety conditions on the water.
One Hundred Boats and Counting
In 2024, the parish identified 232 sunken or ditched vessels that needed to come out. Many went down during Hurricane Ida in August 2021, and parish officials said a lot of owners simply abandoned them.
Terrebonne was one of 10 places the BoatUS Foundation picked in 2023 for grants funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to remove sunken boats from coastal waterways. The parish matched its $1 million award with its own money. Since the campaign started last year, crews have pulled about 100 vessels out of the bayous, and the parish expects to remove about 134 in all.
That still leaves a gap between the boats counted and the boats that money can reach.
Why It Costs So Much
The BoatUS Foundation told the Illuminator that every job is different, but removing a 25-foot vessel averages around $25,000. The longer a boat sits, the more it costs to get out.
The reason is the work itself. The foundation's outreach director said this is not like picking up tires on a beach. It takes barges, cranes, lift bags, licensed captains, divers and specialized skill and equipment.
Fiberglass makes the problem last. Unlike old wooden boats, fiberglass hulls do not break down and go away. A boat left sitting for years can leach paint and chemicals into the water, and it becomes a hazard to everyone who still has to navigate around it.
Utah Has the Same Problem, Out of Sight
Terrebonne can see most of its boats from the bank. In Utah, they are under the surface of lakes and reservoirs, where nobody passing by knows they are there.
Our Utah Waterways Submerged Debris Atlas documents an estimated 499 submerged items across 20 Utah lakes, including 56 vehicles and 103 vessels that are individually confirmed. Every one of those went in with something aboard. A sunken vehicle carries a fuel tank, engine oil, ethylene glycol and a lead acid battery. Under the Clean Water Act, a discharge that leaves a visible sheen on the water is reportable, and the U.S. Geological Survey has tracked petroleum contamination persisting in groundwater for decades at its research site near Bemidji, Minnesota.
What Fathom Does Today
Fathom Restoration is a disabled-veteran-led Utah 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and our volunteer divers work Utah's lakes and reservoirs today, bringing up the debris that settles where nobody can see it. On October 10, four of our divers worked Haws Point at Strawberry Reservoir and came up with about 35 pounds of trash by our estimate, including three folding chairs, an umbrella and a kite. On two September crew dives at Deer Creek Reservoir, we brought up about 58 pounds more.
That work is done by hand. The vehicles and vessels in the Atlas will take what Terrebonne's crews use: lift bags, the right equipment and qualified divers. We are building toward that recovery work, and we are doing it in order: insurance, permits and commercial dive certification first.
The Bill Grows While It Waits
The lesson from Terrebonne is simple. A sunken boat does not get cheaper or cleaner with time. Every year it stays down, it costs more to remove and leaves more behind. Utah's water is holding its share of those years too.
Fathom Restoration is a disabled-veteran-led Utah 501(c)(3) nonprofit running volunteer dive cleanups on Utah's lakes and waterways and building toward the recovery of submerged vehicles and vessels. Donate or volunteer at fathomrestoration.org.
