It’s not something you see every day — a 28-foot, 5,000-pound, barnacle-encrusted sailboat slowly rising out of a local creek, being pulled from its watery resting place by a massive, hydraulic arm.

But that’s exactly what anyone who happened to be in a particular area of Perch Creek last Friday would have seen, as the City of Mobile continues its quest to remove sunken or derelict vessels and other marine debris from waterways.

“There’s no one entity that feels the responsibility or is charged with doing something about it,” Mayor Sandy Stimpson said of the abandoned vessels. “So everybody sits there and points fingers hoping somebody else will do it.”

Now, thanks to $460,000 in grant money from the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation and NOAA’s Marine Debris Program, Mobile is doing something about it.

The sailboat removed from Perch Creek was the third vessel removed as part of the program, called the Hurricane Response Marine Debris Removal Fund. The first was a derelict vessel removed from Dog River Park March 4 after sitting abandoned for years, according to authorities.

The people who should be responsible, of course, are the boat owners, but getting them to remove sunken or derelict vessels can be problematic. Sometimes, tracking down the owner can prove difficult and, even if they’re found, they may lack the financial resources to remove the vessel.

Stimpson also noted in some cases people will deliberately leave boats exposed to major storms in the hopes of collecting insurance money.

“You have people that want to take advantage of a storm coming possibly, so they let the vessel sink,” he said. “So the first thing we try to do is go after those individuals and get them to pay for it.”

Once a vessel is abandoned, it becomes a problem on multiple fronts, according to Casi Callaway, the city’s Chief Resilience Officer.

“What happens with a vessel once it gets abandoned is over time the oils and greases all come out of the water,” Callaway said. ” They try to get everything out of the water, first, but whatever’s left starts to pollute the water.

“Not only that, it’s an eyesore. It’s ugly. It’s litter, but giant, in the middle of our waterways. It does not offer a sense of pride to come down to a beautiful park and see a dilapidated boat hanging out.”

Additionally, those vessels can hamper waterway navigation. Stimpson, in fact, said they are initially focusing on those vessels which are hazardous to navigation.

Callaway said the city applied for the grant money two years ago, but it only recently became available.

“I’m so excited,” she said. “This needs to be something our agencies fund to happen after every storm, without it having to be such a long process. It should be in an agency’s charge, but while it’s not, we’re excited as a city to be able to take a leadership role in getting it to happen.”

Stimpson agreed, saying the city had partnered with the Mobile Police Department’s Marine Detail and Pitts & Sons Towing for the ongoing project.

“I’m excited to see the initiative,” he said. “We have a real partnership here and we’re real excited about the project.

“Anybody need a boat?”