Derelict Boats Will Be Pulled from Louisiana Bayous

Dozens of rotting, abandoned boats will be hauled out of Terrebonne Parish bayous as part of a parish-wide campaign to remove aquatic blight.

The Courier reported that 43 boats will be removed from Bayou Grand Caillou, Bayou Dulac, Bayou Terrebonne, Bayou Dularge and Bayou Petite Caillou beginning in the first week of November. It’s the second phase of a parish project aimed at clearing the bayous of boats left to become eyesores and hazards for navigation.

The Terrebonne Parish Council will vote on the vessel cleanup contract at its meeting on Monday.

“You don’t know how happy I am to see these boats come up out of water,” said Terrebonne Parish President Michel Claudet. “These boats are a scourge on our parish, a blemish on the good works and people of our bayous. We’re going to get them out.”

Terrebonne Parish government is using more than $1 million in grant money related to hurricanes Gustav and Ike to remove the vessels. There will be one final round of cleanup, and the plan is to remove more than 100 boats.

Vessels were also removed in 2009, when Coast Guard crews retrieved 65 boats sunk by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Sunken vessels unrelated to those storms were left behind.

Jennifer Gerbasi, a recovery planner for the parish, said the boats are a blight on the area’s scenic bayous and can cause damage to bayou banks. The boats can also shift into the bayou channel and become a hazard to navigation or break apart during storms.

“We don’t want these vessels that no one has stepped forward to claim to hurt anyone during the next hurricane,” Gerbasi said.