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139 Irma shipwrecks were removed from Simpson Bay Lagoon by the end of 2021
A Trust Fund project removed 139 damaged or sunken vessels from Simpson Bay Lagoon and Mullet Pond in 2021, 19 more than its target, and cleaned 10.5 km of shoreline.
By SXM Daily ยท
Reported early 2022.
By the end of 2021, 139 damaged or submerged vessels left by Hurricane Irma had been removed from Simpson Bay Lagoon and Mullet Pond, 19 more than the original target of 120, according to the National Recovery Program Bureau (NRPB).
Photo: Richie Diesterheft from Santa Barbara, CA, USA / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0, illustrative
What was removed
The shipwreck salvage was part of the Emergency Debris Management Project, funded by the Sint Maarten Trust Fund, which the World Bank administers. According to the NRPB, crews removed about 3,200 metric tons of iron-based scrap metal and about 400 metric tons of other metals such as zinc, copper and aluminium, plus 66 forty-foot containers of other waste including wood, fibreglass and contaminated material. They also cleaned 10.5 kilometres of lagoon shoreline.
The decommissioning yard on Airport Boulevard was handed back to the government on 24 December 2021, a little more than nine months after operations began, the NRPB said. NRPB Director Claret Connor called it "a perfect example of what we can achieve when we work together", and Tourism Minister Roger Lawrence said the lagoon was cleared in time for the peak of the 2021-22 yachting season.
The cost
In a 2024 feature, the World Bank said US$15.5 million went to the shipwreck salvage, out of US$25 million first allocated to the debris project, and that almost 4,000 metric tons of waste in total were disposed of. It said marine life living on the wrecks, including coral, was moved with help from the Nature Foundation.
For the storm itself, see our explainer on Hurricane Irma in St. Martin, and for the lagoon today, our Simpson Bay Lagoon and Mullet Pond guide.
Sources
- https://nrpbsxm.org/139-shipwrecks-successfully-removed-from-the-simpson-bay-lagoon/
- https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2024/02/08/reviving-the-simpson-bay-lagoon
- https://nrpbsxm.org/shipwrecks/
Source: https://nrpbsxm.org/139-shipwrecks-successfully-removed-from-the-simpson-bay-lagoon/