CORONADO, Calif. (KGTV) -- A man's peaceful visit to Coronado's Dog Beach turned into one of major concern when he saw boat debris lining the shore.
Todd Tremelling feared the dogs and marine life would eat the materials. Tremelling was at Dog Beach over the weekend when he saw a boat stuck along the fence that separates the public part of the beach from Naval Air Station North Island.
The boat is one of about a dozen abandoned boats that have washed ashore due to storms. On Saturday, he saw a crew from the base removing the boat with a backhoe.
"They were using the bucket to beat it into a million pieces, or probably 10 million," said Tremelling, who regularly takes his two dogs to the beach.
When he returned on Sunday, he saw the shoreline was lined with boat debris, including wood paneling, fiber glass, and foam that lined the hull. Tremelling filled a bucket with the debris before an animal could eat it.
"They need to do a better job," said Tremelling, of the removal. Sandy Duchac, a spokeswoman for Naval Air Station North Island, said crews follow strict procedures when removing the boats.
"At the end of the day we do everything we can to remove the debris from the boats that people allow to come ashore," she said. "There's very little we can do about teh debris that ends up on the Coronado side."
Duchac said the Navy has removed about a dozen boats that washed ashore after storms in the last year. It's almost impossible to identify the owners because the boats are often abandoned and the ownership information has been removed.
It costs taxpayers about $20,000 to remove each boat.
