Bay Cleanup Finds Everything But the Kitchen Sink

Byline: Shane Scott SAN DIEGO — “It’s not every day you find a full-size washing machine in the middle of the bay,” said Capt. Robert Butler of Vessel Assist said, as he stood next to a rusty, barnacle-encrusted hunk of metal he found on the bottom of the harbor at California Yacht Marina. The washed-up washer was removed, along with other debris, during the 23rd annual Operation Clean Sweep cleanup of San Diego Bay. “I’m pretty sure when we get done, we’ll find the dryer,” Butler added. Butler surveyed the bay aboard a Vessel Assist powerboat, locating large debris with the help of a sonar system. He was joined by boaters aboard pleasurecraft and inflatable boats  — and Navy dive vessels with Navy divers. The divers scoured the bottom of the former A-8 Anchorage and California Yacht Marina — finding old sailboat masts, fuel tanks and engines (including an old Chevrolet motor), a 50-gallon drum filled with cement, an eroded 100-gallon tank, lead-acid car batteries and other miscellaneous masses of metal, many of which had to be hoisted from the water with a large crane. The difference between Operation Clean Sweep and most other ocean cleanups is that everyone cleaning has a stake in the...