NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – State and local leaders met to figure out how to prevent future boats from being abandoned. It comes after nearly 500 abandoned and derelict vessels have been removed from our waterways.
The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, the Department of Environmental Services, and Wounded Nature Working Veterans heard from coastal marina operators and managers. They know that any new boats that show up can be narrowed down to boats migrating from North Carolina and Georgia or coming from marinas. The focus is now on how to help clean their property up before those boats make it to the water.
“I’d say up and down the coast, we probably have as maybe many as 400 boats that are facing issues where they might not be able to obtain insurance in the future,” Rudy Socha, founder and CEO of Wounded Nature Working Veterans, said. “If all those boats migrate out of the marinas into our waterways, we’ll be right back where we started from.”…