To All:

Thanks to EVERYBODY who responded to our call for help this morning! Volunteers arrived. So did the great workers from MarBorg Industries. All the debris from that big trawler-type vessel that hit the beach at the Padaro-Sandyland area were gathered in little stacks and hauled away in MarBorg trucks. Most of it has been hauled away already, before the big operation starts, to get the boat off the beach.

Heal the Ocean Field Advisor Harry Rabin has been working three days straight to coordinate the final cleanup of this colossal mess. Union Pacific Railroad cooperated by allowing the construction of a strong ramp over the tracks to get MarBorg’s heavy equipment down to the beach to grab the wrecked hulk off the beach. Thanks go to Javier Sanchez, manager of track maintenance for Union Pacific for his help with this process – as well as to Lupe Valdez, Senior Director of Public Affairs for Union Pacific who sent us to Javier!

There is HTO Advisory Board Member Maire Radis to thank…she was out on the beach as soon as the debris started drifting, nobody had to call her! We also salute the Padaro and neighboring homeowners who allowed workers to tromp through their yards to access the beach. As always, thanks to Brian Borgatello, who once again took a hands-on role in making this giant boat removal possible.

The boat removal operation will start at 5 a.m. Thursday, at low tide. The hope is that the work can be accomplished before the first trains start arriving, but plans are made for that, too. For this, we thank the police and sheriff departments, the fire chiefs, the railroad officials – everybody who came to battle this problem.

Heal the Ocean has agreed to pay for parts of this operation not covered by the County Sheriff’s Department – so once again, we thank you fabulous, generous donors, for helping us. You enable us to act without hesitation when speed is of the essence.

THANK YOU!

Photos by Harry Rabin, On the Wave Productions