Photos: Abandoned barges in Steamboat Slough

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The Department of Natural Resources says most of the vessels lining Steamboat Slough near Bethel, Alaska, as shown on Tuesday, June 23, 2015, are derelict or abandoned vessels and must be moved or get permission to rest on state-owned shorelands.

BETHEL -- Rusting relics of industry gone by cut into the banks of a well-traveled slough off the Kuskokwim River, oozing fuel and gradually disintegrating -- a decaying steamboat here, abandoned barges there, even a dismantled tug.

The mess in Steamboat Slough, just a quick boat ride from the Southwest Alaska hub of Bethel, is both menacing and ghostly.

It's an outrageous problem, but according to those involved, it remains frustratingly hard to fix. Weak state laws, difficulties with vessel owners, limited jurisdictions and pinched public budgets hamper the effort.

The cost of removing the hundreds of abandoned and derelict vessels littering shorelands around the state is easily in the tens of millions of dollars, say members of a task force trying to turn around the situation.

Read more: Abandoned vessels litter Alaska's shorelines while officials work on a fix