News and Updates
To recognize the successful history of NOAA ships Fairweather and Rainier, as well as the professional mariners, hydrographers, and commissioned officers who have served aboard these ships for the last 50 years, NOAA hosted a ceremony and public ship tours at the Marine Operations Center – Pacific (MOC-P) in Newport, Oregon.
Continue reading “NOAA ships Fairweather and Rainier mark 50 years of service and survey”
NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey quickly updated NOAA electronic navigational charts (NOAA ENC®) to accurately reflect the 225 foot expansion of a slip in Port Everglades, Florida. Now at a total length of 1,125 feet, the elongated slip allows larger ships to dock with confidence. The Port Everglades Pilots – maritime pilots who maneuver ships through crowded harbors and confined waters – requested the chart update. With ENCs that accurately reflect the slip expansion in their hands, pilots can easily communicate to vessel captains that it is safe to dock their vessels in the slip.
Port Everglades is one of the top three cruise ports in the world, and is among the most active cargo ports in the United States. Every slip is kept in high use, and Coast Survey used a new data process that allowed the most critical and valuable information to be applied quickly and made available to the end user.
Continue reading “NOAA quickly updates nautical chart, allowing large ships to dock with confidence in Port Everglades”
On March 12, 2018, NOAA Coast Survey’s navigation response team 5 (NRT5) located the T/V Captain Mackintire, an 80-foot towing vessel that sank off the coast of Kennebunkport, Maine. The U.S. Coast Guard requested assistance finding the vessel, citing concerns of environmental hazards due to an unknown amount of fuel remaining onboard.
In celebration of 50 years of survey and service to the nation, NOAA ships Rainier and Fairweather—two of NOAA’s hydrographic survey vessels—will be opening their doors and hosting public ship tours. Since we understand that many of you are unable to be in Newport, Oregon, the afternoon of March 22 to take a tour in person, we are bringing the tour to you! The following 20 images offer a 360 degree view of the interior and exterior of NOAA Ship Rainier. The images were taken last field season on the survey operations mission to Channel Islands, California. From the crew mess and engine room to a view from the bow, we have captured it all.
Continue reading “Take a 360 tour of NOAA Ship RAINIER”
NOAA Office of Coast Survey released its 1:12,000 electronic navigational chart (NOAA ENC®) of the Merrimack River, Massachusetts, in the RNC Tile Service. This is the first time a navigational chart—created solely as ENC product—is included in the tile service. The tile service renders a traditional depiction of the nautical chart for use with GPS-enabled electronic chart systems or other “chart plotter” display systems to provide real-time vessel positioning for recreational mariners. This chart is included in the single chart tile sets and the quilted tile sets both in the online and offline versions.
Continue reading “NOAA RNC Tile Service displays first ENC-only product”
NOAA’s navigation response team 2 (NRT2), homeported in Fernandina Beach, Florida, conducted a survey around the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, which spans Tampa Bay. The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) and additional members of the Tampa Bay Harbor Safety Committee requested the work and expressed interest in establishing alternate routes for recreational boating traffic. Alternative routes will alleviate increasing congestion where the main ship channel passes beneath the bridge. This area is naturally restrictive to navigation and, as a result, there have been multiple accidents and near accidents here in the past.
Continue reading “NOAA surveys for recreational boat traffic safety in Tampa Bay”
NOAA hydrographic survey ships and contractors are preparing for the 2018 hydrographic survey season. Operations are scheduled for maritime priority areas around the country and are outlined in Coast Survey’s living story map.
Continue reading “NOAA releases 2018 hydrographic survey season plans”
Today the NOAA Central Library unveiled the newly restored painting, Pathfinder, painted in 1899 by renowned maritime artist, Antonio Jacobsen. Included as part of the NOAA Central Library Rare Books collection, the painting is the oldest extant painting of a NOAA ancestor ship in the possession of NOAA.
Continue reading “The second launching of the first Coast and Geodetic Survey ship PATHFINDER”
This month, NOAA unveiled the new Gulf of Maine Operational Forecast System (GoMOFS). This system provides users with real-time and forecasts of surface water levels, 3-D fields of water currents, water temperature, and salinity out to 72 hours. GoMOFS predictions support safe and efficient marine navigation, allowing mariners to plan their routes and avoid accidents. The system’s nowcasts and forecasts can also aid in emergency response, ecological applications, coastal management, and harmful algal bloom forecasts.
Continue reading “Introducing New Gulf of Maine Operational Forecast System”
Have you ever wondered what it is like to work on a NOAA navigation response team (NRT) or what makes our team members experts in their field?
The Office of Coast Survey deploys NRTs across the country to conduct emergency hydrographic surveys requested by the U.S. Coast Guard, port officials, and other first responders in the wake of accidents and natural events that create navigation hazards. In their day‐to‐day, non‐emergency role, the NRTs work in the nation’s busiest ports, surveying for dangers to navigation and updating nautical chart products.
Meet Erin Diurba, a NOAA navigation response team member homeported in Galveston, Texas. Her self-described “survey wanderlust” has taken her across the globe to gain hydrographic surveying expertise on diverse teams and in unique environments. She tells her story here in this story map.
Continue reading “Surveyor Spotlight: NOAA navigation response team member, Erin Diurba”