Nautical charts are updated with the most current information available through several processes and workflows within NOAA\u2019s Office of Coast Survey. The large majority of these updates consist of revisions to water depth information. The bottom of a water body is changeable by nature, thus hydrographic surveys are constantly necessary to show contemporary depths in a given body of water. What doesn\u2019t happen quite as often are changes to land along the coast, altering the way inlets, harbor entrances, and river mouths appear from a bird\u2019s eye view. Unless there has been a catastrophic event, these changes in land are usually the result of human interaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Just down the coast from the Port of Long Beach in California, is Anaheim Bay and Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach. In operation since 1944, the station has evolved into the Navy\u2019s primary West Coast installation for ordnance storage and loading of munitions on medium-sized naval vessels. Southeast of Anaheim Bay is Huntington Harbour \u2013 a large community of homes with waterfront access and several marinas with numerous recreational boaters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prior to August 2021, the only way for recreational boaters to access Huntington Harbour was through Anaheim Bay resulting in recreational boaters transiting uncomfortably close to the Navy facilities. In 2020, the Navy began a large project to improve the existing pier and creating a new channel to help separate recreational boat traffic from naval vessels. The end result was a new channel and causeway.<\/p>\n\n\n