Seven Meters from the Mud: Volunteers Recover Boat in Puerto Portals

Seven Meters from the Mud: Volunteers Clean Up and Recover Boat in Puerto Portals

Early on Sunday morning, the cries of seagulls mixed with the soft clack of a crane in the Puerto Portals marina. Not a tourist gathering, not a celebrity party — but around 80 volunteer coastal cleanup participants, dock workers and firefighters who set to work with nets, bags and plenty of effort. The task: to make the harbor basin cleaner. What they pulled from the silvery water surprised even experienced maritime workers: an almost complete boat, about seven meters long and roughly 2.6 tonnes in weight, buried deep in the mud.

Find in the silt
At first they thought it was just accumulations of rubbish — plastic nets, jerry cans, tires. But when the mud was lifted, the outline of a hull appeared, covered in seaweed and smeared with oil. Using a crane from the port authority, the wreck was raised piece by piece and loaded onto a low-loader. A fisherman who has worked on the pier for thirty years shook his head and said his hands still smelled of diesel and coffee: "At first we thought it was only trash — but then a real boat showed up."

More Than Three Tons of Trash: Small Hands, Big Motivation

The operation brought more than three tonnes of waste to light: tires, plastic nets, empty jerry cans, a kick scooter and the sunken boat — one of the biggest finds that morning. By shortly after 11 a.m., bags and bulky items were neatly lined up on the quay, ready for collection. The helpers sorted, carried and laughed in between; children enthusiastically helped gather plastic bottles. The sound of folding chairs and the murmur of neighbors who had stopped to watch blended with the light breeze that made the sun glitter over the basin.

For the organizers, it was about more than visible dirt: "Microplastics, polluted sediments and oil residues threaten sea urchins, fish and seagrass meadows — habitats that, on days like this, we can defend a little."

What will happen to the boat?
The find is now being examined by the public order service: is it just scrap, or is there a legal claim by an owner? At the same time, the disposal of the remaining material is being handled by municipal waste management. The port management announced plans to organize such cleaning actions more regularly in the future and to involve local clubs even more. A small harbor, a greater responsibility, was the message.

The morning was mild, the wind light — ideal conditions for a cleanup that felt more like neighborhood help than a major media spectacle. Passersby filmed with their phones, older residents talked about past storms, teenagers helped with loading. Between the rattle of the crane and the occasional sound of a boat engine, something reliable emerged: community.

It was not a Hollywood moment, rather the opposite — not a dramatic showdown, but practical, unspectacular hard work. And yet: the harbor breathed a little easier that day. For Puerto Portals this meant concrete results: cleaner basins, protected wildlife and an example of how neighbors and authorities can move things together. A sentence you will hear more often on the quay: If we stick together, the island stays a little more beautiful.