A dozen more abandoned boats will soon be removed from North Carolina waters
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- BoatUS Foundation grants $550,000 to remove 12 abandoned vessels in five counties
- Coastal Federation will remove boats from working harbors near estuaries
- Group has two years to dispose of the 12 boats, which include fishing trawlers
The N.C. Coastal Federation has received a grant from a national boating organization to remove a dozen abandoned boats from waterways in five coastal counties.
The money will help continue a years-long effort by the nonprofit, the state Wildlife Resources Commission and local governments to clear derelict vessels that are both sources of pollution and hazards to navigation.
These 12 boats are in Carteret, Chowan, Hyde, New Hanover and Onslow counties, including commercial fishing harbors such as Engelhard, Morehead City, Sneads Ferry and Swan Quarter. The vessels range from recreational sailboats, cabin cruisers and a houseboat to fishing trawlers up to 75 feet long, according to Ted Wilgis, who heads the Coastal Federation’s marine debris program.
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The $550,000 grant comes from the BoatUS Foundation, using money from the federal government. The foundation’s full name is BoatUS Foundation for Boating Safety and Clean Water, and it received $10 million to provide grants to clean up “abandoned and derelict vessels” nationwide.
The Coastal Federation began working with the state and local governments to clean up abandoned boats and other debris after Hurricane Florence in 2018. The storm left coastal areas littered with boats so damaged that their owners simply left them.
A year later, the General Assembly began providing money to the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission to investigate and begin removing boats left after Florence and other storms. The agency keeps a database and determines which ones should be cleaned up sooner and which ones can wait.
The BoatUS Foundation grant means 12 of them can be cleaned up sooner, Wilgis said.
“One of the primary goals for this project is to focus on removing vessels in working harbors and marinas in fishing communities,” he wrote in an email. “These communities are located on the shores of our very important ecological and economic estuaries.”
The Coastal Federation has two years to remove and dispose of the 12 boats. The group began seeking the necessary state and federal permits last July and hopes to get started with the first seven boats next month, Wilgis said.
The Coastal Federation has other state and federal grants to begin removing 23 other abandoned boats along the coast. Since Florence, the Wildlife Resources Commission, Coastal Federation and other state and local agencies have removed more than 450 derelict vessels from North Carolina waterways.
This story was originally published January 18, 2026 at 7:00 AM.
