The skimmer’s pretty simple, but you have to know how to make it work for you. It took me a few months to learn and a year to master it. I like the speed of a Sea Ray when I’m not working, but the skimmer’s six knots is fine. My main maneuver is to head along the shoreline and take bites out of junk collected in corners. It’s mostly plastic soda bottles, Styrofoam, coffee lids, and potato-chip-type bags—recyclables. But since there are no bulkheads, big stuff gets in too, like a tree, keg, or chunk of concrete off a building. The messiest thing to pick up is the Styrofoam, the weirdest, dead ducks.

Sometimes we churn up some natural gas deposits—the smell makes the guys want to jump off the boat.

Yesterday, I rescued a pigeon with plastic around its neck. Donatello [a foot-tall Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle doll] and his Ravens’ helmet were also rescues.

Some of this stuff comes from as far away as Pennsylvania, thanks to the Jones Falls outfall [flowing in by Pier Six Pavillion]. Harris Creek outfall [by the Canton Safeway on Boston St.] is another big one. Last year, 1.5 million pounds of garbage was pulled out.  It takes about a half-day to do a lap of the harbor on a light day. I offload onto a conveyor in Federal Hill, up to five times a day after a good storm. Then it goes to Quarantine Road landfill.

I grew up on Middle River. The idea of being on the water and keeping it clean was what got me here.  It took me six months to land the job (I was a car salesman), and now I have four years under my belt.

I’m very gung-ho about cleaning up the harbor. The trash will keep running out to the Bay unless we get it. And there will always be garbage. I have job security.”