Two fishing boats that grounded in the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary in recent years have inspired new recommendations aimed at holding boat owners accountable for damages.
A new report suggests ways to prevent or respond to such incidents by improving coordination among the patchwork of agencies responsible for managing, policing and protecting the sanctuary, whose 3,000-square-mile ecosystem is home to many threatened species.
The recommendations, from a subcommittee of the sanctuary’s advisory council, urge state policymakers to require vessel owners to insure and register their boats, which is not a requirement in California as it is in many other states.
Both the Marian, which sank in Tomales Bay, and the American Challenger, which ran aground on rocks north of Dillon Beach, were uninsured. This made it harder for authorities to hold their owners accountable, and both owners said they had no money for cleanup.
The incidents informed many of the report’s proposals, which included using vessel registration fees to establish a fund for removing derelict vessels. Their suggestions will now be taken under advisement by the sanctuary superintendent, Maria Brown, who will decide whether to act on them.
The group recommended that law enforcement officers issue tickets to the owners of abandoned or neglected boats before they risk causing environmental damage. Owners would be given 12 hours to respond with a plan for removing them.
The marine sanctuary includes waters off the coast of Marin, Sonoma, Mendocino and San Mateo Counties. The network of agencies responsible for dealing with abandoned or grounded boats in its waters includes the Coast Guard, law enforcement and emergency services departments, and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The subcommittee recommended that these agencies form a working group on abandoned or grounded vessels to address incidents as they arise. It also suggested establishing a web page that identifies protected areas and publicizes cases in which neglectful boat owners were required to pay for damages out of pocket because they lacked insurance.
“The sanctuary shouldn’t wait for another Challenger to happen before finding out what the challenges are along its entire jurisdiction,” said Cea Higgins, who chaired the subcommittee. “It should work with all its partners to identify resources and obstacles and craft a standard response protocol for grounded vessels or vessels at risk of sinking.”
Federal agencies respond to oil spills in the sanctuary but do not deal with debris or other toxins from grounded vessels, Ms. Higgins said. “We’re pushing for the sanctuary, which unifies so many counties and coastal areas, to take a lead role.”
The owner of the 33-foot wooden boat the Marian, Patrick Roy Harper, was fined $5,000 by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration in 2019 after the boat broke free of its mooring and ran aground north of Nick’s Cove, damaging federally protected seagrass.
Last year, after Mr. Harper let his decaying vessel sit idle for many months before it finally sank in September 2021, the county prosecuted him. Although the district attorney’s office had recommended a 45-day jail term, the judge who heard the case in January sentenced Mr. Harper to a year of probation and fined him $3,200.
To some environmental advocates, Mr. Harper’s sentence seemed too light to serve as a deterrent to reckless boat owners. “It appears that the cost of being an irresponsible boat owner is too low to deter poor behavior,” said Richard James, an Inverness resident who serves on the marine sanctuary advisory council.
The American Challenger, a 90-foot steel-hulled vessel, remains perched atop rocks north of Dillon Beach. It ran aground in March 2021 after breaking free of a cable while being towed by a tugboat to Mexico, where it was scheduled to be scrapped. Efforts to remove it were abandoned last September after a coalition of agencies led by the Coast Guard ran out of money to finance the effort, which cost more than $12 million.
The California State Lands Commission, which oversees the state’s tidal and submerged land, has been seeking funding to continue those removal efforts. It applied unsuccessfully for a $15 million grant from NOAA last year. NOAA said competition for the grants was intense, and the lands commission said it may reapply this year.