Archive for the ‘Navigation response teams’ Category
Spring is always a noteworthy time at Coast Survey, as the hydrographic season gets underway. This year is no exception, with some neat projects ahead.
On the East Coast, NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson continues her work with the multi-state, multi-agency Long Island Sound Seafloor Mapping Initiative, as well as acquiring data over 87 square nautical miles in the approaches to New York to update nautical charts. In June, Thomas Jefferson begins some of her summer-long extensive 2013 post-Sandy surveys in Delaware Bay (supported by Title X, Chapter 2, of H.R. 152, the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act, 2013).
As our newest survey vessel, NOAA Ship Ferdinand Hassler, prepares for a long survey career, the crew is taking her through final repairs, upgrades, training, and inspection this spring. If all goes well, Hassler will then survey approaches to Chesapeake Bay in July, before heading to her new homeport in New Castle, New Hampshire. Once there, Hassler plans to survey approaches to New Hampshire and conduct some tests and evaluations of a new autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) for surveying.
Families give the Rainier a heartfelt sendoff. (We’ve blocked the children’s faces to protect online identities.)
On the West Coast, NOAA Ship Rainier will spend part of her season in southeast Alaska, surveying numerous locations, and moving to the Southern Alaska Peninsula in late summer. Rainier will survey 183 SNM of Chatham Strait, which is used regularly by cruise liners, ferries, military vessels, and tugs and barges – and provides larger ships with refuge when they need to avoid storms in the Gulf of Alaska. Rainier also plans to survey 70 SNM at Behm Canal, and 165 SNM at Sumner Strait and Affleck Canal. Later in the summer, Rainier will survey around Cold Bay and the Shumagin Islands. During the transit from their homeport at Newport, Oregon, Rainier will also acquire multibeam backscatter data off the Washington and Oregon coast.
We had to change plans for NOAA Ship Fairweather, which was originally scheduled to tackle some work in the Arctic this summer. This 45-year-old ship needed repairs, and won’t be available for surveys until late August – which is too late for the long haul up to the Arctic. Instead, as soon as she gets underway, Fairweather will assist with an ocean acidification project along the California coast, which will help inform climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts. Fairweather may also survey around Los Angeles / Long Beach and San Diego.
Even though Fairweather won’t be headed north this year, we continue our commitment to the Arctic by using a commercial hydrographic contractor for the essential survey work needed in the approaches to Red Dog Mine and around Krenitzin Island. We are also planning for additional contractor surveys as part of our post-Sandy survey work in New York and New Jersey waters, and for chart updates in the approaches to Mississippi Sound, approaches to Barataria Bay, and along the Louisiana coast.
Additionally, Coast Survey’s navigation response teams are surveying this year in Panama City, Jacksonville, and St. Augustine, Florida; Galveston and Sabine Pass, Texas; Eastern Long Island Sound; and San Francisco Bay. Of course, prime survey season is also prime hurricane season, so the navigation response teams are also updating hurricane plans and performing preventive maintenance so they are ready to deploy as needed for post-hurricane rapid maritime response.
NOAA kicked off its spring season for post-Sandy hydrographic work on April 11, as a navigation response team — equipped with high-tech surveying equipment — began a search for underwater storm debris and mapped the depths surrounding Liberty Island and Ellis Island. Navigation Response Team 5 wrapped up their project today, after surveying over 110 linear nautical miles. They surveyed for 119 hours, collecting over 578 million depth measurements.
In addition to surveying around Liberty Island and Ellis Island, Coast Survey’s NRT5 surveyed adjacent areas to acquire data for updates to NOAA’s nautical charts. This is the “rainbow” coverage map that shows the surveyed area. (The colors indicate depth.)
Navigation Response Team 5 prepared this graphic depiction of their surveys of Liberty Island and adjacent areas.
NRT5 was one of the first in-water responders to help re-open the Port of New York and New Jersey immediately after Hurricane Sandy hit last year. They returned in April at the request of the National Park Service, which is working to re-establish safe navigation and docking at the Statue of Liberty, in preparation for its planned re-opening on July 4, 2013.
Dr. David Conlin, chief of the National Park Service’s Submerged Resources Center, expressed his appreciation for the special survey at Liberty Island.
Coast Survey’s Navigation Response Team 5 surveyed the waters surrounding Liberty Island, April 2013.
“The Park Service needs highly qualified hydrographic assistance as we move forward with repairs to Liberty Island’s permanent docks and as we make sure surrounding waters are safe for passenger ferries and private vessels,” Conlin explained. “We are very pleased that Coast Survey is stepping up to help re-open this icon for the American people.”
Equipped with multibeam echo-sounding technology and side scan sonar, NRT5 looked for storm debris and identified areas that have depths suitable for the installation of temporary floating docks. NRT5 will deliver survey results (including any pertinent images) to the National Park Service Submerged Resources Center. After further processing, the data will also be forwarded to Coast Survey’s Marine Chart Division, where cartographers will apply new data to NOAA’s nautical charts. NRT5 found no dangers that would warrant an immediate Notice to Mariners — feature evaluations are ongoing.
Navigation Response Team 5 members are Lt. Steven Loy, and physical science technicians Matt Andring and Philip Sparr.
It was an honor to assist with preparations for the Presidential Inaugural. Our assistance, provided before the event, was a combined effort by one of our navigation response teams, survey technicians, cartographers, and several NOAA officers. Coast Survey’s work was additionally supported by colleagues at NOAA’s Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services.
NRT5 surveys the Potomac River
For more about navigational planning for the Potomac River, see Coast Guard to establish security zone for the presidential inauguration.
By David McIntire, survey technician, Coast Survey Navigation Response Team 4
Down East Maine. For many, this conjures up imagery of rugged, fog-enshrouded coastline carved for centuries by relentless waves and violent nor’easters, where quaint fishing villages and misty lighthouses hug the shoreline, inhabited by hardy mariners who for generations have braved fierce storms and unimaginable winters to make a living where land and sea meet in perhaps the most spectacular way. Yet this is only part of the story where a nostalgic past embraces an innovative future. Eastport, Maine is no exception and NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey is proud to partner in that endeavor.
Fishing has been the lifeblood of Eastport’s economy for generations and, despite the influx of tourism in recent decades, many Down East families still derive their income from the sea. This may sound quaint and romantic, until you realize that the Bay of Fundy is not the idyllic, placid water of postcards and paintings. With tides ranging nearly 30 feet every few hours, inlets become rife with ripping currents as the back bays fill and empty through these narrow, rocky channels. It is within this treacherous environment that the local commercial fishermen risk their lives – and, over the past decade, a number of them have paid the ultimate price.
A navigation response team deployed to Maine’s dangerous Cobscook Bay in 2010. The Eastport fishing community asked for full bottom surveys and updates to nautical charts after several men lost their lives when their boats capsized.
In response to these tragedies, city council member Captain Bob Peacock of Quoddy Pilots USA worked with U.S. Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins to ask one of Coast Survey’s navigation response teams to survey the areas that have proven particularly dangerous, including areas that had not been surveyed in more than a century. Over the course of the 2010 summer survey, the team shared important underwater data with the fishermen. Since the survey, there has been no further loss of life.
Part of what makes navigation response team data so valuable is its versatility to meet the needs of diverse users across various industries. Like many small towns, Eastport is seeking to expand its economic base to provide growth and jobs for the region it supports. The Port of Eastport is one of the deepest natural ports in the United States. Upgrades to the facilities have allowed the port to service more cargo than ever before, but the demand for larger ships and greater cargo require additional mapping to ensure that deeper draught vessels have the necessary clearance for passage and that the nautical charts reflect the current conditions. NOAA was able to share its data from their survey of the area to aid ship pilots and boaters in navigating the area, which will help provide greater economic opportunities to those living in Down East Maine.
But there is more to their economy than fishing and ships. In fact, the very geographic phenomena that make the Bay of Fundy unpredictably dangerous to boaters have proven to hold extraordinary opportunity for alternative energy. Enter the Ocean Renewable Power Company. Over the past decade, ORPC has been intent on harnessing the power of ocean and river currents to bring tide-generated electricity to the region. The same Coast Survey data that helped commercial fishing operations and aided ship navigation also played a key role in modeling the underwater landscape for the selection and placement of their tide-generated power systems.
ORPC is now deploying the Maine Tidal Energy Project by installing power systems that do not require controversial dams that might affect marine life or commercial shipping lanes. Last month, the New England Clean Energy Council recognized them with an “Emerging Company of the Year” award. The Energy Council noted that the project provides the first power from any ocean energy project — including offshore wind, wave and tidal projects — to deliver energy to an electrical utility grid in the United States, “thus giving the project global significance,” the Council stated in making its award. It also noted ORPC’s contributions to the regional economy.
“Based in Maine, ORPC has employed a total of 93 vendors, contractors and consultants on the project, with 80 percent of those based in New England,” the Council said.
Composed entirely of islands, Eastport is more than the easternmost city in the United States. This home to nearly 2,000 people, where Cobscook Bay and Passamaquoddy Bay come together in the Bay of Fundy, is also home to some of the most extreme tides, the largest whirlpool in the world, and unpredictably dangerous currents that accompany these phenomena. In this dynamic environment, NOAA’s hydrographic surveys buttress the intersection of tradition and technology, helping to preserve historic livelihoods and support future economic progress.
Eastport’s fishermen deal with some of the East Coast’s most treacherous tides and currents. Innovative technology is harnessing the energy from those conditions.
NOAA continues to work in partnership with other federal, state, and local partners in response to the devastation of Hurricane Sandy. NOAA’s efforts are focused on navigation surveys to restore maritime commerce; aerial surveys to assist in those efforts and to aid on-the-ground responders from FEMA and local authorities; and in oil spill cleanup and damage assessment. NOAA’s National Weather Service is also keeping authorities aware of changing weather conditions that could impact recovery and response efforts.
NOAA’s hydrographic survey vessels, including two three-person navigation response teams (NRTs) and the NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson with her two survey launches, have completed surveys of the Port of New York and New Jersey. Working over the past five days, the high-tech vessels searched approximately 20 square nautical miles of shipping lanes, channels, and terminals to search for dangers to navigation.
Coast Survey navigation managers were embedded with the Coast Guard Maritime Transportation System Recovery Unit for the Port of NY/NJ, coordinating NOAA’s survey response. Lt. Brent Pounds, NOAA, explains ongoing survey operations to one of the port’s terminal operators during the height of operations.
Working with the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Maritime Transportation System Recovery Unit, NOAA surveyors provided near-real time updates on underwater object detection (including debris and shipping containers) that allowed the USCG Captain of the Port to make decisions on port status. (Note: Follow the status of port conditions at U.S. Coast Guard Digital News.)
In addition to aiding in the gradual reopening of the New York City-area port to shipping, including special emergency deliveries of needed petroleum fuels products, NOAA navigation survey response teams also provided valuable data to allow for: the reopening of the port at Hampton Roads, Virginia, home of the largest naval base in the world and one of the nation’s leading ports for the shipping of coal; the reopening of the ports of Baltimore and Philadelphia; and the resumption of the ferry that connects Lewes, Del., and Cape May, N.J.— an important access route to bring aid to stricken New Jersey and Delaware shore communities.
While NOAA’s navigation assets have completed their primary assignments, they remain available to continue to assist the U.S. Coast Guard, as needed, and will be conducting additional surveys in smaller navigational areas of South Jersey and Delaware in coming days.
The NRTs’ work helps speed the re-opening of ports and waterways, allowing the flow of relief supplies, and enabling the resumption of ocean commerce — valued at more than $1 trillion annually to the nation’s economy — to resume.
The processed images from multibeam echosounders provide critical images of the seafloor. This image of a sunken container was acquired during the post-Sandy survey of the Port of NY/NJ, processed by a survey technician on the Thomas Jefferson.
NOAA hydrographers and survey technicians will continue to process the billions of points of data collected by the five NOAA vessels since Sandy response operations began on Oct. 30 at the Port of New York and New Jersey. While initial assessments are based off on-scene observations, additional image processing may reveal further details.
Once processed, Sandy response hydrographic data collected by all NOAA survey vessels in N.Y., N.J., Delaware Bay, and Chesapeake Bay will be available from the National Geophysical Data Center. This data is valuable for contemporary use—but also for reference if NOAA vessels need to re-survey the same areas in future years.
The National Ocean Service has more information on the status of post-Sandy operations for damage assessment, pollution response, and weather reporting.
Example of depth measurements of Sandy Hook Channel from one of NOAA’s post-Sandy surveys.
Coast Survey’s major survey operations in response to Sandy are completed in Port of Virginia, allowing port operations to resume. That timely resumption is proving to be vital for East Coast shipping, as the port is now receiving cargo diverted from the Port of New York and New Jersey. Associated Press is reporting that more than a thousand containers were offloaded in Virginia yesterday, with more on the way.
Meanwhile, critical survey work continues in the Port of New York and New Jersey, with two of Coast Survey’s navigation response teams (NRT) and two of the Thomas Jefferson launches continuing their search for dangers to navigation in shipping channels and terminals. Today, the high tech survey boats attached to the Thomas Jefferson surveyed the East River, as the ship processes data for delivery to the Coast Guard. One of the boats then went to survey Church Hill Channel this afternoon, while the other went to Gravesend Bay. NRT 2 is surveying Port Elizabeth and Port Newark in Newark Bay. NRT 5 surveyed Kill Van Kull and then proceeded to Author Kill.
(Note: Follow the status of port conditions at U.S. Coast Guard Digital News.)
Getting the surveys done, quickly but thoroughly, is extremely important to the nation’s economy. Over $200 billion of imports and exports moved through the Port of NY/NJ in 2011. It is the country’s third largest port, by value of cargo (fourth largest, by volume). The flow of trade at the port reaches from America’s heartland, with exports like automobiles and meat, in addition to many other commodities. (See PANYNJ Trade Statistics.)
This graphic, compiled by NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey, Navigation Services Division, depicts the surveys at the Port of NY/NJ. NOAA’s planned and completed surveys (shown in blue) are 82% of the total survey requests for the port.
Bonus photo for the day: Ensign Brittany Anderson, onboard the Thomas Jefferson, captured this picture of one of the TJ’s high-tech survey boats (called a “launch”), as they left to survey the East River this morning.
A Thomas Jefferson launch heads out to survey the East River. Photo by Ensign Brittany Anderson, NOAA
As the sun comes up in New York this morning, Ensign Lindsey Norman retrieves the side scan sonar that NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson used to survey the Hudson River, so fuel barge traffic could resume. Photo by Lt. Cmdr. Denise Gruccio, NOAA
Even before Sandy hit the New Jersey shore, NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey was mobilizing to respond to the emergency, preparing vessels, personnel, and equipment to conduct hydrographic surveys of hard-hit areas, searching for the underwater debris and shoaling that can paralyze shipping at the nation’s ports.
Restoring fuel flow into the New York area has been a top priority — but barge deliveries have been hampered by water borne obstructions that forced a partial closure of the port. NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson mobilized through the night to New York Harbor (see NOAA Chart 12327), where they began surveying at 3:12 this morning, looking for the sunken containers, debris, and shoaling that pose dangers to ships and lives. In the darkness, using high tech side scan sonar equipment, Thomas Jefferson conducted the hydrographic survey of the designated areas on the Hudson River. With the information provided by the Thomas Jefferson’s survey, combined with earlier work conducted by Coast Survey’s Navigation Response Team 5, the U.S. Coast Guard Captain of the Port was able to open the port to fuel barge traffic this morning.
Tank barges and tank ships carries tens of millions of tons of petroleum products through the Port of New York and New Jersey. According to a report by the American Waterways Operators, the barges carry the product throughout the state, from Buffalo to Long Island. “Specific petroleum products transported by barge include gasoline, kerosene, asphalt, lube oil and greases, distillate fuel, and residual fuel. These and other products are used by both consumers and industry to keep New York’s economy moving and growing.”
Thomas Jefferson has now moved to the Anchorage Channel, and two of her smaller vessels – also equipped with high-tech survey equipment – started surveying at daybreak; one conducting a reconnaissance survey in the Buttermilk Channel, to locate sunken containers; and the other checking for shoaling in Sandy Hook Channel.
Coast Survey’s Navigation Response Team 5 got in a full day of surveying yesterday, on the Anchorage Channel. They processed their data overnight, for early delivery to the Captain of the Port, and have started their second day of surveying. Their work will help open the deep draft channel.
Navigation Response Team 2, mobilized from Florida, arrived at the New York Coast Guard station last night, and started their first surveying at daybreak this morning. They will be searching for dangers to navigation between Global Marine Terminal and Port Newark.
NOAA’s navigation response teams and other survey assets are in the water (or soon will be) as they respond to SANDY’s destruction, checking for underwater debris and shoaling that may pose a risk to navigation. Tasked by the U.S. Coast Guard Captains of the Port, NOAA vessels can use multibeam echo sounders or side scan sonar, as conditions warrant, to search for the answers that speed resumption of shipping and other vessel movements.
As of noon today:
NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson started out this morning for New York Harbor, where they will survey for obstructions in waterways, starting at daybreak tomorrow. Visual reconnaissance indicates debris and missing containers may pose a danger to shipping.
Navigation Response Team 5 mobilized from Connecticut and got underway in New York at first light this morning, surveying Anchorage Channel. Their next priorities are the route up to the Manhattan cruise ship terminal, Sandy Hook Channel, and then the Global Marine Terminal.
NOAA Ship Ferdinand Hassler spent yesterday and today surveying deep draft ship channels in Chesapeake Channel and Thimble Shoal Channel, as 78 large vessels, including portions of the Navy’s Atlantic Fleet, waited to transit through the entrance to Chesapeake Bay.
NOAA R/V Bay Hydro II is surveying in the Hampton Roads area yesterday and today, checking channels needed by coal shipments and aircraft carriers at Norfolk.
Navigation Response Team 2 is on its way from their regularly scheduled surveying off Florida’s coast, headed to help out in NY/NJ. Additionally, an operations manager is transporting mobile survey equipment to New York, as an additional survey resource on a vessel of opportunity.
NOAA R/V Potawaugh mobilized this morning to Lewes, Del., to survey for shoaling that may pose a risk to safe navigation for the Cape May – Lewes Ferry and other vessels. They started surveying, using their multibeam echo sounder, at 1 pm today.
Follow NOAA Office of Coast Survey on Twitter @nauticalcharts, for updates.
USCG Lt. Cmdr. Anne Morrisey, chief of Waterways Management Division for Sector New York, and NOAA Coast Survey navigation manager Kyle Ward discuss potential navigation response scenarios, at Sector NY Coast Guard Maritime Transportation System Recovery Unit.
As conditions go downhill, NOAA is deploying personnel and hydrographic survey assets to help speed the resumption of shipping after SANDY clears out.
Coast Survey has deployed navigation managers from outside Hurricane Sandy’s areas of impact, supplemented with headquarters personnel, moving them to areas expected to be hit hard. Navigation managers are now at U.S. Coast Guard Incident Command Centers for New York – New Jersey and for Delaware Bay. We are also working with Coast Guard Captains of the Port for Virginia, Baltimore, and New England. NOAA’s navigation managers are working with the Coast Guard and the Army Corps of Engineers to coordinate deployment of NOAA’s navigation response teams (NRT) for rapid maritime response. They are also identifying vessels of opportunity, for potential use with Coast Survey’s mobile survey team (MIST).
NOAA’s navigation response teams provide essential information when ports need to quickly but safely re-open in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, helping to limit the nation’s exposure to significant economic losses and adverse effects on national security caused by prolonged disruptions to the maritime transportation system.
As of noon today, the graph below depicts the position of navigation response teams, survey vessels, and equipment available to search for underwater dangers to navigation and to detect dangerous shoaling that may pose an unacceptable risk to vessels.
As Hurricane SANDY heads north along the Atlantic coast, NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey is deep into preparations for maritime rapid response. Two objectives stand out: move navigation response personnel and assets into position to move quickly once SANDY moves out; and batten down survey vessels, to protect them from storm damage.
Coast Survey regularly responds to requests for quick navigation surveys after storms and other damaging events, pulling vessels from their normal survey schedules and deploying them to ports that need hydrographic surveys before they can resume full-fledged shipping.
As of this morning, this is the position of navigation response teams, survey vessels, and equipment available to search for underwater dangers to navigation and to detect shifting seafloor bottoms. Coast Survey’s Navigation Services Division is putting out orders now to move some of these assets, as well as pre-positioning navigation managers.
The navigation response teams (NRTs), mobile integrated survey teams (MIST) that use vessels of opportunity, autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), and Bay Hydro II are all Coast Survey response assets. Additionally, NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson is surveying in Long Island Sound and will be deployed if she is needed. (Update 10/28: Bay Hydro II moved from Solomons to Norfolk.)
As Gulf ports in the path of Hurricane Isaac bring operations back up to normal, Coast Survey’s navigation response team has finished its hydrographic surveys at Port Fourchon and is heading back to its regularly scheduled 2012 survey of the sea floor in the Port of Houston and Galveston Bay navigational areas.
Port Fourchon started allowing ships to enter the port yesterday, after NRT4 found only minor shoaling and no underwater debris that would pose a danger to navigation.
NOAA surveys ports to keep navigation safe and efficient. As Coast Survey’s navigation response team was wrapping up its surveys of Port Fourchon and Belle Pass on August 31, the pilot of the multi-purpose supply vessel HOS Achiever, inbound, asked if they found any dangers to navigation. The team found minor shoaling but no hazards.
Upon receiving Coast Survey’s initial survey report yesterday, Port Fourchon executive director Chett Chiasson thanked the navigation response team and managers for support in this recovery. “Your immediate availability following the hurricane, being some of the “first” people in, goes above and beyond the call of duty,” he wrote. (See full text of Chiasson’s letter to NOAA Administrator, Dr. Jane Lubchenco, below.)
The navigation response teams and managers responded quickly, and under difficult circumstances, but we need to emphasize that they responded safely. Ensuring safety for NOAA response personnel is as high a priority as establishing safe conditions for the maritime transportation system.
The National Geodetic Survey’s Remote Sensing Division used the NOAA King Air and the NOAA Twin Otter to gather imagery for the response to Isaac. The crews of NOAA remote sensing planes consist of two NOAA Corps pilots from the Office of Marine and Aviation Operations, with NGS experts operating the sensors. (Images from the remote sensing survey are being posted to Hurricane ISAAC Response Imagery Viewer.)
Coast Survey’s navigation managers are returning to their stations in port areas across the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. They remain available, as always, to provide NOAA asset coordination and assistance to government officials, port representatives, pilots, and the maritime industry.
***
Sent to Dr. Jane Lubchenco, NOAA Administrator, August 31, 2012
Subject: Thank You to NOAA for the Service to the Nation and to the Gulf’s Energy Connection, Port Fourchon, Louisiana from Hurricane Isaac
Dr. Lubchenco:
I would like to recognize the huge effort of NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey to respond in such a timely and critical way to our needs at Port Fourchon to respond to Hurricane Isaac and to recover our Port Operations as quickly as possible.
Every day, almost 30% of America’s supply and consumption of energy comes from the Gulf of Mexico. Port Fourchon is the single most important supply Port in the Gulf. The preparations for a hurricane and recovery of the Port is critical to this Nation in re-establishing the supply of domestic energy from the Gulf. Delays and loss of operations by the Port can have dramatic impacts to energy supply of this country and create large economic impacts throughout the United States.
The eye of Hurricane Isaac came directly over the Port and we saw widespread flooding throughout the area and of our only access road to the Port, Louisiana Highway LA-1.
The day the hurricane started to move from the area, NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey Navigational Response Team arrived in our offices, discussed the needs of our Port and headed to the Port that morning.
NOAA’s Coast Survey Navigation Response Team was the first responders to arrive and reach Port Fourchon. They and our Harbor Police made it through flooded highways and arrived to start work before anyone else. They worked through yesterday and today surveying the entire Port and it’s Pass, Belle Pass and are now in our Operations Center processing the work and have been constantly updating me and our Port staff throughout.
With a very large hurricane and coastal impacts we saw, you quickly find out who are the real responders and partners with the Port and the Gulf. For us, it is NOAA and the Office of Coast Survey.
Our commendations and thanks to you and to the Office of Coast Survey. Their service to us and the Nation is truly exemplary.
Respectfully,
Chett
Chett C. Chiasson, MPA
Executive Director
Greater Lafourche Port Commission
Coast Survey navigation response teams know the meaning of “rapid” in Rapid Maritime Response, as their ongoing response following Hurricane Isaac demonstrates.
As we explained in yesterday’s post (NOAA looks for dangers to navigation at Port Fourchon), getting a navigation response team (NRT) into the water at the port, to search for underwater debris and shoaling ‒ ASAP ‒ was Coast Survey’s highest priority. It was also a priority for port authorities, who know more than anyone how important it is to resume maritime operations quickly at “The Gulf’s Energy Connection.”
The 3-person survey team (team lead Nick Forfinski, with Luke Pavilonis and David McIntire), with navigation managers Tim Osborn and Alan Bunn, first had to move the boat (complete with state-of-the-art multibeam sonar and side scan sonar equipment) 163 miles from Lafayette to Port Fourchon. The team was the first group to drive down closed Highway 1, only preceded by a harbor police officer who wanted to make sure roads weren’t washed out. To travel the last segment of the storm-savaged highway, which was covered in places by nearly two feet of sideways-moving water, averting downed utility poles with hanging wires, the small Coast Survey caravan received a police escort by Port Fourchon Harbor Police.
The Coast Survey caravan, taking NRT4 to Port Fourchon on Thursday morning, had to drive through sections of Hwy 1 that were covered with up to two feet of moving water. The caravan was escorted by the Port Fourchon Harbor Police.
The caravan had to skirt downed utility lines and hanging wires on closed Highway 1, north of Galliano, as they traveled from Lafayette to Port Fourchon on Thursday morning.
As anyone who has ever driven through bad conditions can imagine, the team arrived at Port Fourchon tensed and tired. But that didn’t stop them. After consulting with port authorities, NRT4 launched their 28′ Sea Ark, put the side scan sonar in the water, switched on the multibeam, calibrated equipment, and started searching for dangers to navigation in the deserted waters around the docks. They also did a quick reconnaissance of Belle Pass (see NOAA chart 11346), where conditions were such that they weren’t able to continue operations. (They are returning to Belle Pass today.)
NRT4 used the multibeam echo sounder and the side scan sonar (pictured here) as they searched for underwater hazards at Port Fourchon on Aug 30.
Port officials need the data ‒ quickly ‒ from the hydrographic surveys, so NRT4 survey technicians worked until the early morning hours, processing the depth measurements and images they acquired yesterday afternoon.
Today, NRT4 will intensify their search for underwater debris and shoaling, to make sure that ships and mariners can navigate safely ‒ without damage to lives, equipment, or the environment ‒ when ships start returning after the Coast Guard Captain of the Port lifts port restrictions.
A rapid maritime response by NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey will likely pay dividends to the U.S. economy, as a high-tech survey team today began surveying the channels of Port Fourchon, the “Gulf’s Energy Connection,” to search for dangers to navigation caused by Hurricane Isaac.
Coast Survey’s navigation response team, in the water at Port Fourchon, started searching for underwater dangers to navigation today, speeding the resumption of shipping.
“Time literally means money for U.S. consumers when it comes to navigation through many of the Gulf of Mexico ports,” said Rear Adm. Gerd Glang, Office of Coast Survey director. “In this case, when a port can’t service offshore oil rigs, everyone — and most especially consumers — gets hit in the wallet.”
To help speed the resumption of maritime commerce following hurricanes and other disasters, Coast Survey deploys hydrographic survey assets for high priority port areas that need emergency assistance. Port Fourchon services about 90 percent of all deepwater oil rigs and platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. It is also the host for the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP), which is the only port in the United States capable of handling Ultra Large Crude Carriers and Very Large Crude Carriers.
The Morgan City Captain of the Port, who has jurisdiction over Port Fourchon, anticipated they would need NOAA’s rapid maritime response as soon as conditions allowed boats in the water.
Hydrographic survey response priorities are set by U.S. Coast Guard Captains of the Port, coordinating with NOAA navigation managers who are working post-storm at Port Fourchon and NOAA’s new Disaster Response Center in Mobile. While NOAA hydrographers measure depths and look for underwater debris and other dangers to navigation, survey technicians process the data and send the information to the U.S. Coast Guard, who uses the information to make critical decisions on resuming port operations. After the Coast Survey navigation response team informs the Captain that no hidden dangers exist, the port can safely begin to resume shipping operations.
Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the Port Fourchon surveys should take about two days.
Days before Hurricane Isaac hit the U.S., Coast Survey mobilized assets and personnel, getting ready to respond to navigational needs of the ports slammed by the slow-moving, and drenching, hurricane. Navigation response teams, who normally survey ports and coastal areas to acquire modern data for updating nautical charts, were moved to Louisiana and Florida’s panhandle, so they could hit the water as soon as sea conditions allowed.
This image depicts a NOAA survey ship using its multibeam echo sounder to measure ocean depths.
The experienced 3-person navigation response team (team lead Nick Forfinski, with Luke Pavilonis and David McIntire) is using specially designed sonar equipment to conduct the surveys: the side scan sonar uses sound to “see” debris in the waterways, and the multibeam echo sounder uses high-resolution depth information to detect shoaling.
Ports are critical arteries for American commerce, with the maritime transportation system contributing more than $1 trillion to the national economy and providing employment for more than 13 million people. Just as a car accident can snarl traffic for miles, shipping delays can snarl both the maritime system and land-based shipping that feeds into the ports.
Coast Survey’s Rapid Maritime Response assets for Hurricane Isaac are now in place, and are ready to move in when the storm moves on.
The teams will search for underwater debris and other dangers to navigation in port areas, to speed the resumption of shipping in areas impacted by the storm. A rapid response — that gives Coast Guard officials vital information on the condition of ship channels — reduces economic losses in maritime trade, reduces potential disruptions in energy supplies when ports are serving energy providers and oil rigs, and keeps mariners safe. (For more, see Coast Survey Prepares Rapid Maritime Response for Tropical Storm Isaac.)
Navigation response team 4 (NRT4), a 3-person team who had been conducting surveys in Galveston, arrived in Lafayette, Louisiana, yesterday. They brought their 28’ foot Sea Ark and state-of-the-art survey equipment with them, and are already working with survey specialists at Coast Survey headquarters, laying out potential survey tracks based on initial indications of priorities from Coast Guard officials.
NRT2 trailered their boat from where they had been surveying on Florida’s Atlantic Coast, and are now with NRT1 in Panama City (in Florida’s panhandle), ready to respond to requests for assistance from Captains of the Port in Alabama or Mississippi. They can also deploy to Louisiana, if needed.
The NOAA Office of Marine and Aviation Operations / National Geodetic Survey remote sensing planes are “response ready” with pre-planned flight lines for aerial surveying of coastal areas hit with storm surge. The King Air is in Austin, Texas, and the Twin Otter is relocating to Mobile, Alabama.
NRT4 brought their boat and state-of-the-art survey equipment to Lafayette, Louisiana, yesterday.
NOAA navigation manager Michael Henderson (right) works with Billy Sasser, Dept. of Homeland Security’s maritime security liaison to the Florida emergency operations center. Henderson has spent the last four days working with state and federal officials as part of Florida’s State Emergency Response Team.
Chett Chaisson, of Port Fourchon, took this photo this morning at the Golden Meadow Flood Lock.
As NOAA’s National Weather Service adjusts the track of Tropical Storm Isaac, so Coast Survey adjusts pre-response planning and deployment. (BTW, the New Orleans/Baton Rouge NWS Tropical Weather Briefing is a great resource for maritime observations, as is nowCOAST.) Based on updates in the hurricane models, and after multiple briefings with Coast Guard officials, Coast Survey is moving to pre-position two of the navigation response teams closer to the expected impact areas. (See response asset graphic, below.)
Major ports along in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana will likely be closed later today, if they aren’t already. With over $153 billion in ocean-going trade through New Orleans annually, and another $31 billion a year in and out of Mobile, it is essential to get shipping channels cleared for the resumption of traffic as soon as possible after a storm. Just as important, the Gulf produces 23 percent of total U.S. crude oil production and 7 percent of natural gas production, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The resumption of operations at ports serving the energy industry is essential to keeping supplies flowing.
Several of Coast Survey’s regional navigation managers are gearing up coordination with state and port officials, and with the U.S. Coast Guard. Florida navigation manager Mike Henderson has been working since early Saturday morning at the State Emergency Center in Tallahassee. Gulf Coast (East) navigation manager Tim Osborn is relocating to the Louisiana emergency response center in Baton Rouge, and navigation liaison Patrick Fink will be working out of NOAA’s new Disaster Response Center in Mobile. Gulf Coast (West) navigation manager Alan Bunn, based in Texas, is moving to Lafayette to better handle on-the-ground logistics for the Rapid Maritime Response. The navigation managers coordinate requests for NOAA’s navigation response teams, as the NRTs are needed to help re-open shipping lanes and port areas by searching for underwater debris and shoaling.
Navigation response team 4, which is surveying off the coast of Galveston, will deploy to Lafayette, Louisiana, on Tuesday morning. NRT4 will survey in Louisiana, as needed according to priorities established by the Captain of the Port (COTP).
Also on Tuesday, NRT2 will join NRT1 in Panama City, Florida, to be ready for deployment as soon as Hurricane Isaac moves away from the coast. These teams will each survey areas in Alabama, Mississippi, or Louisiana – again, as requested according to U.S. Coast Guard COTP priorities.
Some of NOAA’s major survey assets are the private contractors who conduct hydrographic surveys to acquire data necessary for nautical chart updates. Coast Survey’s Hydrographic Surveys Division is working with the contractors currently surveying in the Gulf, to ascertain their current locations, determine how they may be impacted by the storm, and their potential response capabilities.
Coast Survey’s Mobile Integrated Survey Team remains ready to move as necessary, once Isaac has made landfall and we have assessed the storm damage and navigational needs. When called to action, the MIST will mobilize on a vessel of opportunity.
Coast Survey is more than surveying, charting, and maritime response. The Coast Survey Development Lab is providing visualizations of experimental storm surge simulations to the National Hurricane Center for each forecast cycle of Hurricane Isaac. These simulations are being created in partnership with several federal agencies and research groups, and show the significant storm surge threat Isaac poses to the Gulf Coast.
With the approach of Tropical Storm Isaac, headed toward the state of Florida, Coast Survey navigation managers and navigation response teams have moved into Rapid Maritime Response preparations. Coast Survey is often called upon to speed the resumption of ocean shipping — slowed or shut down by hurricane damage — by searching for submerged debris or other dangers to navigation in port areas or shipping lanes. After navigation response teams survey the areas, ports can resume operations safely and efficiently.
Our navigation managers work with port representatives, and state and federal officials in the area, to coordinate their requests for NOAA data and services, and our manager for Florida is already fielding requests from port officials and the U.S. Coast Guard in Florida.
Navigation response teams deploy with small boats trailerable by truck to any U.S. destination. In addition to regular assignments that make shipping safe in and around ports, they are prepared to respond to disasters.
Coast Survey deploys six navigation response teams, at all times, to conduct long-term hydrographic projects in critical maritime areas. While surveying, the teams remain on alert to respond to emergencies anywhere on the nation’s coasts. The teams are three-person crews who can transport the hydrographic equipment and 28’ survey boats to coastal locations where submerged debris or shoaling would cause a danger to navigation.
Two teams, currently surveying in Florida (NRT1 and NRT2), are now going through hurricane response checklists and ensuring fuel supplies. They are monitoring the storm and will put the equipment into a safe location if conditions require, so they are ready to roll when called. Two other teams (NRT4 surveying in Texas and NRT5 in Massachusetts) are continuing on their current survey assignments while remaining on call for emergency deployment, depending on where Isaac is headed.
The Coast Survey MIST — a mobile integrated survey team, equipped with side scan sonar equipment and an autonomous underwater vehicle — is ready to deploy from Coast Survey headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland. Additionally, a Twin Otter airplane is equipped and ready to conduct remote sensing and aerial photography.
NOAA also has several survey ships currently working in the Atlantic. The Thomas Jefferson, Ferdinand R. Hassler, and Nancy Foster are able to join the Rapid Maritime Response if needed.
Coast Survey will update this graphic as survey assets are deployed.
