By: Rob Otto

New York City’s waterways are being choked by more than 500 abandoned and rusting vessels — some dating back nearly a century — as residents and environmental groups grow increasingly frustrated with the city’s sluggish and expensive cleanup process.

As The New York Post first reported, the city has only managed to remove 87 derelict boats from its roughly 520 miles of shoreline in the last 14 months. The effort is spearheaded by the recently created Office of Marine Debris Disposal and Vessel Surrendering, a division of the Parks Department tasked with clearing out the estimated 600 decaying ships across all five boroughs.

Local residents, especially in coastal neighborhoods like College Point in Queens, say the situation has spiraled for decades. “People want to get that cleaned up. It’s been like that forever,” said Brock Weiner, president of the College Point Civic and Taxpayers Association, in comments to The Post. He noted that at least eight abandoned boats — leaking rust, fuel, and other contaminants — are currently sitting in local waters.

“They definitely pose hazards for people who are on the water and they’re just a real blight on the neighborhood,” added Kat Cervino, president of the Coastal Preservation Network, based in College Point. She pointed to a dangerously deteriorating barge in nearby Powell’s Cove Park that dates back to the 1930s.

The Post reported that each vessel removed from the water costs the city around $7,000 — a hefty price tag that includes retrieval, transport, disassembly, and crushing at a designated marina. The process is further bogged down by centuries-old maritime laws dating back to the 1600s, originally designed to protect cargo on shipwrecks from theft. These outdated rules make it more difficult to address the fiberglass pleasure boats currently rotting along the shoreline.

From the Kill Van Kull in Staten Island to Vernam Basin in the Rockaways, and across to Flushing Bay in Queens and Westchester Creek in the Bronx, the derelict vessels are spread citywide. Flushing Bay alone contains at least six abandoned ships, including one dumped as recently as last spring.

Cervino told The Post that the community has tried to address the problem on its own, but the costs are simply too high for small nonprofits. “We’ve just done our cleanups with our trash bags and always you look from the shoreline and think, ‘Oh, wouldn’t it be amazing if somebody somewhere could remove these?’”

When the Parks Department created the marine debris office last year, Cervino immediately reached out to ensure College Point was on its radar. “And wouldn’t you know it? Now it’s very much on their radar,” she said.

As The Post also noted, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — whose district includes affected areas in Queens and the Bronx — has now requested $1.2 million in federal funds to help clean up nearly one million pounds of nautical debris in the region. If granted, the funds would be 25% more than the office’s original citywide budget.

A spokesperson for the Congresswoman’s office emphasized the urgency: “When pieces break off these vessels, they can pollute the water, create dangerous conditions for passing ships, and damage property.”

The city is also encouraging boat owners to surrender unwanted vessels before they deteriorate further. “New York is a city of water,” a Parks Department spokesperson told The Post, “and it’s critical that we keep our waterways clear of debris like abandoned vessels”