A number of boats hiding in plain sight became a little less hidden Thursday morning, with the US Coast Guard checking this maritime mystery.
Their discovery was a few boats, which were not bothering anyone.
"Neither one was a source of pollution, neither one is a hazard to navigation. With that established, the Coast Guard has no jurisdiction over them," says U.S. Coast Guard spokesperson Carl Rowe.
Both the DEP and City of Hoboken said they had no jurisdiction. The New Jersey state police say they are investigating.
"Maybe doing it during a full moon and high tide you get a barge and grab hold of each one of the vessels individually," says Sean Crowe, who works for Don Jon Marina. He says removing these boats, even the ones that have sunk, wouldn't be hard.
"Put slings underneath it and put it on the deck of your barge and away you'd go," says Crowe.
State police say they'll try to track down owners. Sean Crowe says the cove, in full view of a hotel and hundreds of apartments, is actually secluded. Boats could go unnoticed, until now.
The City of Hoboken did say that it had reached out to agencies in the past on the issue of the boats, and that it removed a boat that had washed up onto a walkway post-Sandy.