The crew of the Lynyrd Skymmr rescued three canoeists and set a record in collecting 1,545 cubic yards of floating debris from Milwaukee, Wisconsin rivers this year.
The 50-foot-long vessel scooped up three dozen tree trunks and uncounted branches along with the usual urban flotsam of plastic containers, trash, road construction safety barrels, tires and dead fish.
The debris skimmer was on the water for 128 days in 2017, a season that began April 11 and ended Nov. 3, said Sharon Mertens, the district’s director of water quality protection.
The 1,545 cubic yards of debris collected this year is enough to fill more than 77 of the commercial-size 20-yard garbage Dumpsters. Those open top containers are 22 feet long and 8 feet wide.