Terrebonne tackles removal of hundreds of sunken boats from its bayous

Along the twisting network of bayous in Terrebonne Parish lie hundreds of boats, many of them submerged in hurricanes, others accidentally run aground or simply abandoned. Several vessels have sat for years with no one and no money available to move them.

But now parish officials, aided by federal funding via a national boater safety nonprofit, are working to clear the castaway and derelict vessels from the bayous to improve environmental and safety conditions on the water. 

Terrebonne Parish was one of 10 locales the BoatUS Foundation picked in 2023 to receive grants funded by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to remove sunken boats from coastal waterways. The parish matched the $1 million award with its own money. 

Noah Lirette, Terrebonne Parish chief administrative officer, said the derelict vessel removal campaign started last year. To date, he said the parish has pulled out about 100 vessels from Terrebonne bayous during the campaign, expecting to remove about 134 vessels in all. 

“Hopefully we can remove more as other people pull out their boats that belong to them and we can extend those dollars,” he added.

In 2024, the parish identified 232 sunken or ditched vessels that needed to be removed, said Lirette. Many sank during Hurricane Ida, a category 4 storm that hit Louisiana in August 2021 and caused $75 billion in damage, according to the NOAA. 

“A lot of people abandoned them. We had a problem we had to deal with,” Lirette said, adding that many people who dealt with damage from Ida have moved away permanently.

Abandoned watercraft have become a problem across the country, according to the BoatUS Foundation. The mass production of recreational boats with fiberglass hulls has made it easier and cheaper to own a boat, but it has also increased the number that need to be disposed of. 

“There are more boats coming to end of life now and, unlike the old wooden boats, fiberglass doesn’t just deteriorate and go away or go back into nature,” said Alanna Keating, director of outreach for the BoatUS Foundation. “It is continuing to sustain in the environment, and so the disposal of it becomes more challenging.”

Abandoned and derelict boats pose an array of hazards, including environmental and boating safety concerns. 

“It does leach out paints and chemicals and things like that when it’s just sitting there for years and years,” Keating said. “But beyond that, they can become a navigational hazard, especially in places … where there’s not a large channel for boats to go and pass.”

In Chauvin, where two boats were extracted from the bayou Tuesday, Lirette said “a ton of commercial fishermen” traverse the bayou daily to go work.

“They need to be safe for those guys,” he said.

Sunken boat removals can be expensive. While every job is different, Keating said the cost to extract a 25-foot vessel averages around $25,000. The longer an abandoned boat sits untouched, the more expensive it is to remove, she said.

“It’s not like picking up tires on a beach or a waterway cleanup,” she said. “These need barges and cranes and lift bags and licensed captains and divers and really specialized skills and equipment and knowledge to be able to do this.”

Keating said the remains of the abandoned boats are being disposed of at a landfill.