A 34-foot derelict vessel, Valkyrie, drifts into Petersburg's harbor at dawn on Monday, Nov. 10, 2025. Harbor department staff got the old troller out of the harbor and worked to keep it from sinking. It is slated for permanent removal.
A derelict, unmanned vessel is no longer drifting in the waters of the Wrangell Narrows.
The Petersburg Borough's harbor department monitored the Valkyrie, a 34-foot fiberglass troller, for months as it drifted around a bay south of town. But Harbormaster Glorianne Wollen said it came too close for comfort in the town's Middle Harbor on Monday morning, after traveling a few miles overnight.
"At that point, we decided we better address it," Wollen said. "It's just going to continue to be a problem."
Earlier this fall, the Valkyrie broke loose from its mooring buoy in Petersburg's Scow Bay during a storm. A Juneau-based salvage company cleaned out its contaminants after the vessel beached on neighboring Kupreanof Island and started leaking pollutants. But the Valkyrie wasn't removed.
Wollen said the vessel had been floating all around Scow Bay, a few miles south of town, until the tide took it up through Libby Strait. For miles, the Valkyrie drifted alone in the dark of night toward town, eventually reaching Middle Harbor on Monday morning.
A slowly sinking derelict vessel poses a number of hazards for both harbor infrastructure and mariners. Wollen said the department took action to avoid damage and keep it from sinking in the harbor.
"It will continue to be a problem. It'll be a navigation issue, as well as, you know, littering the beaches ... so I just made the decision to grab it," Wollen said. "We'll get it out, and have to foot the bill now for the demolition of it. Because if I let it go ... it's a hazard."
Staff managed to get it out of the harbor, latch on and pump out the water. It remained tied up in North Harbor until the tide allowed staff to ground it back at Scow Bay.
Wollen said the Valkyrie is now slated for permanent removal.
"Hopefully, working with public works, we'll get it out at minimal costs, you know, because we're going to do it in-house," Wollen said. "But then it's the price tag the baler puts on it, because ... they'll have to ship it out."
Wollen said the Valkyrie's owner is "refusing to deal with it" and has essentially abandoned the vessel.
"It just kind of falls upon us to clean up everything. It's just disappointing," she said.
Demolishing and disposing of derelict vessels can cost the borough thousands of dollars, and Wollen said the harbor and its moorage users have to foot that bill.
The borough adopted new laws about inactive vessels last winter. Now, borough code requires vessels to leave port for at least 24 hours in a year. If they don't, they'll have to pay for moorage and another fee for storage.
Wollen said she hopes revenue from storage fees could help mitigate the issue with derelict vessels in Petersburg.
"Vessels that don't move turn into these kind of situations after a while, and so I'm trying to nip that in the bud before ... they become a problem," said Wollen.
Owners of vessels that haven't left their assigned stalls in Petersburg will get billed more once the ordinance's first one-year mark comes around in January. Wollen said local vessel owners should tell the harbormaster's office when they leave port so they aren't charged for storage, which costs as much as moorage.
This story was first published at http://www.kfsk.org and is reprinted here with permission.
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