ALSD 4096
Alabama Seaport
Sept. 2006 Issue
NOAA Story

Tackling uncharted waters with NOAA on the Gulf Coast

When Thomas Jefferson established the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in 1807, he had no idea that almost 200 years later, the organization would be monitoring more than 95,000 miles of coastline and more than 3.5 million square miles of open waters.

Today, electronic technology assists NOAA in providing mariners and pilots with tools for safe navigation. Marine transportation of commercial materials has tripled in the last 50 years, with a trend toward larger, but fewer vessels. Thanks to detailed information on approaches, fairways and channels, these ships, most with deeper drafts, can safely enter U.S. harbors such as the Port of Mobile.

Currently, NOAA is working with contract agencies to survey and chart the approaches, fairways and channels in Mobile Bay. TerraSond is working in the Mobile Bay area and around Dauphin Island. To the east, C&C Technologies is working in the Mississippi Sound, said Crescent Moegling, a physical scientist with NOAA’s Hydrographic Surveys Division.

Other contractors will begin work in the Mobile area waterways, the Mississippi Sound and Lake Borgne, located in eastern Louisiana, in the near future. In Alabama, the first priority survey areas are approximately 374 square miles in size or about 239,000 acres of bays, nearshore and some offshore areas.

“Shipping in and out of the Port of Mobile is very draft sensitive,” said Tim Osborn, navigation manager, eastern Gulf, for the NOAA Office of Coast Survey. “The depth of the channel has to be kept clean of hazards and debris so the boats won’t hit anything. There may be a foot of clearance now, where there used to be 10-15 feet. Ship values and cargo values have gone up dramatically in the past few years.”

Osborn added, “The ships are also on a very tight schedule so there is a demand for the channels to be kept clean, demanding vigilance from the port in the approach and fairways. In the port business, time is money. Delays, incidents, strikes, shutdowns all go to the bottom line.”

Like many deepwater ports, the Port of Mobile relies on NOAA to respond quickly to anything that may affect its operations. Just months ago, NOAA discovered an uncharted wreck in the fairways of Mobile Bay, what Osborn called a classic example of an uncharted hazard.

Responding quickly, NOAA alerted the port, pilots and other navigation interests in the area, such as the U.S. Coast Guard. Notices were sent out to the navigation and shipping community. Within a week, the hazard was marked on NOAA’s electronic charts. According to Osborn, the finding and charting efforts can feed into salvage and removal procedures, either by the state of Alabama, the Coast Guard or FEMA.

“The Port of Mobile is very important and will be one of the top 10 ports in the not too distant future, because of its land, large metropolitan environment, railways, interstate systems, and connection to the intercoastal waterways, as well as the port’s good management,” said Osborn. “Our job is to focus on those priority ports that we need to serve. There are about 40 ports in the country that really make the curve: Tampa, Lake Charles, Houston, New York. Mobile is in the same category as Seattle and San Francisco.”

NOAA began with the mission of supporting navigation by mapping and charting the nation’s waterways and ports. Then, as now, shipping was a critical part of the growing nation. In the 1920s and 30s, charting was done in the Gulf region by rowboats, with surveyors dropping leadlines to get soundings, then map and chart coastal and offshore water, as well as ports, finally depicting the information on paper. 

Today the R/V DAVIDSON, contracted to TerraSond by Ocean Services in Seattle, has sidescan sonar, part of an electronic evolution allowing NOAA contractors to provide quick and accurate information. Information is also gathered from buoys, measuring tides, water levels, depth readings and other information.

Using sidescan sonar and multibeam imagery, such as that on R/V DAVIDSON, NOAA contractors work to acquire complete coverage of the seafloor to find all hazards to navigation and use that information to update its charts. Immediately after a hurricane, NOAA works with those same charts and navigation aids, enhancing them to focus on the impacted areas. This is done primarily through Navigation Response Teams (NRT), small, mobile units that can reach affected areas quickly via a small vessel.

NRTs are equipped with a shore-based processing system to disseminate data and information quickly to the public. NRTs often work hand-in-hand with the Corps of Engineers on hurricane responses. Immediately after Hurricane Katrina, debris found in the Mobile waterways by NOAA NRT-1 had to be removed by the Coast Guard and U.S. Navy before the port could become fully operational.

“What we do in part with the port is of national significance and significant when adversity strikes,” said Osborn. NRT-1 is currently working around Mobile Bay and Dauphin Island.

Osborn explained that NOAA learned three important lessons from the active 2005 hurricane season. First, he said, it demonstrated the real risk to the Gulf Coast region from a large hurricane. Secondly, it demonstrated how important key assets, such as the Port of Mobile, are to bringing in critical supplies. With the Port of New Orleans out of commission due to Hurricane Katrina, there was no place to bring ships except to Mobile, Osborn said. Finally, he said it shows how important key cargo and supplies are to the region, such as coal brought in for the power plants, supplying energy to area residents. When the power plants run out of coal, Osborn said, they start to shut down.

In times when there are no hurricanes, NOAA works on regular charting and navigation, making sure its areas are charted accurately, locating all dangers to navigation and alerting the interested agencies. Additionally, if a hurricane does strike, NOAA has the information to compare a channel, fairway or approach before and after the storm and see the storm’s effect.

Currently, NOAA is finding large debris fields in the Mississippi Sound, consisting of parts of homes, barges, pipelines and platforms. Osborn explains that the debris fields are the result of the storm surge.

“If there is debris and wreckage on the land close to the coast, there is a good chance it will be in the water as well,” he said. “When the storm surge comes in, it has to go back out.” Entire residences, he said, are being found in the sound behind Dauphin Island.

NOAA has the responsibility of getting the port back open after storms and other incidents, not in weeks, but in days. Ships with supplies, critical after a storm, have to get into port and unloaded. Osborn called the Port of Mobile one of the nation’s fastest growing ports.

“Alabama is linked to the Gulf as much as any state you could possibly find,” said Osborn. “It’s our job to be responsible for surveying and tell where the hazards are.”


Captions:

nrt.bmp and nrt2.bmp: NOAA’s Navigation Response Teams (NRTs) are small, mobile units that can reach effected areas quickly via a small vessel.

Map caption: The first priority survey areas in Alabama are approximately 239,000

acres of bays, nearshore and some offshore areas.