It started out cloudy but by the end of the day the sun was up, the garbage was out and the halibut steaks were smoking.

The 11th annual Lake Washington Ship Canal cleanup concluded four hours after volunteers began fishing everything from wood, to coupons, to unopened cans of beer in waters stretching from the Fremont Bridge to the Ballard Locks.

More than 100 people participated in the event, which began at 9 a.m. Saturday, May 20 at Fishermen's Terminal and ended with a cookout that afternoon.

There was a decline in the amount of garbage again this year, according to Lise Kenworthy, board member of the Seattle Marine Business Coalition, the primary sponsor of the event. Kenworthy and husband Tom Dyer coordinated the efforts of some 40 boats on the water for the cleanup, including kayakers and steel hulled workboats which could navigate close to shore and bridge piers where garbage tends to collect. A pair of tugboats - Western Towboat's Hornet and Seacoast Towing's Falcon - acted as mother ships, collecting garbage bags and hauling them to Fishermen's Terminal for removal.

The competition for the coveted Golden Styrofoam Trophy was fierce this year - Dennis Peterson and Team NRC collected some 14 bags of garbage, but were edged out by Team Seattle Public Utilities (SPU), which filled 15 bags.

SPU cosponsored the cleanup, along with the Puget Soundkeeper Alliance, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Port of Seattle. Ballard Oil and Jumbo Seafoods brought and cooked lunch.

On the first year of the ship canal cleanup, some 28 dumpsters were filled, and with each successive year, the cleanup crews have seen a decline in garbage. This year, they filled only 8 dumpsters, leading volunteer John Crawford, from Foss Maritime, to conclude the group is winning the battle against ship canal liter.

"Every year it's less and less and less. And that's the neatest thing about all this," he said.