NOAA hydro survey season underway

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.

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.