Dredging up the past at Tolmie, McMicken Island
From Washington State Parks E-newsletter (11/14/24)
If you happened to be at Tolmie State Park in October, you might have seen the huge Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) barge in the bay, dredging up… car tires!
In the 1960s, 70s and 80s, more than 25 “tire piles” or “tire reefs” were installed in Puget Sound, including one at Tolmie and one off the end of McMicken Island.
The “reefs,” each one with 500 to 30,000 (no, that’s not a typo) tires sitting 12 to 80 feet underwater, were bundled together with polyproline line.
They were supposed to entice rockfish and lingcod populations and bolster recreational fishing. But the fish never came, some piles fell apart and DNR staff worried the tires could be polluting the environment.
DNR Science and Restoration staff did a study of 20 Puget Sound tire piles using multibeam sonar to map the piles, along with underwater drop cameras, remotely operated vehicles, and divers to see the tire piles.
Between Oct. 16 and Oct. 25, the Tolmie tires were pulled up with cranes, elevators and giant barges. The Case Inlet tires near McMicken were removed Oct. 27-29. Once collected, the tires were disposed of at a tire monofil facility.
Photo credit: Tire Reef Removal, by Dave Wischer, DNR Communications.
