ST. SIMONS, Ga. — UPDATE: The St. Simon's Response team says the Altamaha Riverkeeper was walking alongside response teams when they discovered and removed globules of oil from Jekyll Island on Sunday.
Major developments in the dismantling of a capsized cargo ship are underway in St. Simons Sound.
"It's just mind-blowing, the size and scope of this," one St. Simons Island resident said about the Golden Ray salvage.
Crews have cut the bow of the Golden Ray, which capsized in St. Simons Sound last year.
Officials estimated it would take 24 hours for each cut to be made—but due to several setbacks, including the cutting chain being broken and delays due to Tropical Storms, it took more than 20 days.
It’s the first time many people can see the ship's interior, including Connie Brogan, who drove with her husband to a dock near the Port of Brunswick at Mayor’s Point to see the inside of the bow.
“It’s bigger than what you think it would be," Brogan said. "I’m surprised the cars are intact, smashed but intact."
The first cut, which was completed this weekend, had its challenges. The bow was taken to a site near the Port of Brunswick at Mayors Point.
Debris including thumbnail-sized oil globules, which officials say was picked up, washed ashore on Jekyll Island.
“This morning I found 30 or so pieces. [Sunday] I found 50 pieces,” Fletcher Sams said.
Sams, executive director of the Altamaha Riverkeeper group, is encouraging people to call in reports of debris.
According to a US Coast Guard incident response spokesperson, he says Sams was walking with SCAT (Shoreline Cleanup and Assessment Technique) teams on Sunday morning when globules were discovered.
He's also concerned about what might happen when workers cut into the ship’s fuel tanks as well as whatever pollutants remain in more than 4,000 cars still on board the ship.
“We’re seeing on the Georgia coast something we’ve never seen before. Hopefully it’s one of the more successful salvage operations in U.S., history but we’re preparing for the worst case,” Sams said.
For months, Sams has advocated for a complete environmental damage assessment of the St. Simons Sound and surrounding areas to be done.
Officials say there is ongoing monitoring of the ship and the surrounding environment.
People like Brogan say the eyesore has been an attraction to the island—but one they’re ready to see gone.
“It’s been such a slow process, and I’m hoping the process to cut up the rest of the ship isn’t as slow as this first piece. It’s been there for such a long time. We’d like to see it out of there,” Brogan said.
Crews are preparing to cut the stern of the ship next. Michael Himes, spokesperson for the Unified Command incident response team said the stern is next in line to be cut.
“The inner sections, which hold the majority of the cars, our plan shifts to instead of using barges to receive, we’ll be using dry dock barges, so we can lift them minimally and slip the dry docks underneath, seal them and take it to a local site for dismantling,” Himes said.
“The irregular shape can be acted upon by the tides here and the waters so the methodology and the plan of removing the end sections ... we don’t want to leave them if they can be acted upon by water moving in the sound,” Himes added.
Sams said some of the oil is covered in debris.
Officials ask that people call the debris reporting hotline at (912) 944-5620.
There is a 200-yard safety zone around the environmental protection barrier for recreational vessels. Any unauthorized usage of drones around the wreck site is prohibited.