Coast Survey\u2019s 2014 projects reflect these priorities.
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Alaska<\/h3>\n
NOAA Ships Rainier<\/em><\/a> and Fairweather<\/em><\/a> will be surveying Kodiak Island, specifically Kupreanof Strait to the north and Sitinak Strait to the south. These are considered emerging critical areas, because of both old soundings (1900-1939 for North and 1900-1969 for South Kodiak Island) and increased demand from the tourism and commercial fishing industries to chart safe passages closer to shore. Fairweather<\/em> will survey south of the San Juan Islands, in the Straits of Juan de Fuca in Washington. The team will also investigate reported\u00a0shoaling in Friday Harbor. Pilots and port authorities requested hydrographic surveys in Galveston Bay and the vicinity, and NRT4 is responding. Anchorages in this area are of particular interest; the team will survey Anchorage Basin A in Bolivar Roads and the newly charted barge channels and charted features along the main Houston Ship Channel. NRT2 will survey in the St. Johns River area near Jacksonville, Florida, in response to a request for support from the U.S. Coast Guard. The survey team will investigate hazards to navigation in the waters of a proposed anchorage area seven nautical miles northeast of St. Johns Point. The 2014 hydrographic survey season is underway, with the NOAA fleet beginning its projects for this year. Have you ever wondered how Coast Survey goes about determining where to survey and when? Several considerations go into prioritizing survey plans, which are laid out several years in advance. Coast Survey asks specific questions about each potential … <\/p>\n
\n![\"Kodiak](\"http:\/\/noaacoastsurvey.files.wordpress.com\/2014\/04\/kodiak-n-and-s_text_inlet.jpg\")
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\nThe\u00a0Rainier<\/em> will also continue her work in Cold Bay. The projects focus on charting potential areas of refuge for ships approaching the harbor, especially when currents are strong. Cold Bay is a very small harbor town on the Aleutian Peninsula. (You may recall that when the Rainier<\/em> visited last year<\/a>, all eight of the town\u2019s school children came aboard to learn about driving the ship and making nautical charts!)
\nOne of NOAA\u2019s hydrographic services\u00a0contractors will survey Bechevin Bay, a priority area because it constitutes the easternmost passage through the Aleutians from the Bering Sea to the Gulf of Alaska. In addition, hydrographic surveys in this area will help validate an algorithm, being tested by NOAA\u2019s Remote Sensing Division<\/a>, that estimates water depth strictly from satellite imagery.
\n![\"Bechivin](\"http:\/\/noaacoastsurvey.files.wordpress.com\/2014\/04\/bechivin-bay-and-cold-bay_aleutian_text1.jpg?w=1000\")
<\/a><\/p>\nWest Coast<\/h3>\n
\nOne of Coast Survey\u2019s navigation response teams<\/a>, NRT6, is surveying in San Francisco Bay, where the San Francisco Bay Pilot Association requested surveys in San Pablo Bay and Suisun Bay at the Reserve Fleet area, and in Richmond Harbor to address charting discrepancies and other concerns. The ship will then survey Anchorages 22 and 23 (Carquinez Strait, near Benicia, CA) to chart a shoal that has migrated toward the federal channel and caused a tug and barge to run aground.<\/p>\nGulf of Mexico<\/h3>\n
\nA NOAA contractor will survey in Louisiana, offshore of Barataria Bay. About 5,000 deep-draft vessels transit the Southwest Pass of the Mississippi River per year. Surveys will be looking for turnoffs and turning basins for large vessels. A re-survey of sandy, changeable bottoms in the areas of Mobile Bay, Alabama, and Panama City, Florida, will also be conducted to finish surveying approach lanes to these ports. A NOAA contractor will survey the approaches to Lake Borgne\/Lake Ponchartrain in Louisiana, where charts still use data acquired by the U.S. Coast Survey in the 1800s.
\nNRT1 is surveying in Panama City, Florida, acquiring data in St. Andrews Bay and West Bay. The team will also investigate shoaling and a changing channel course in Grand Lagoon, depths and features in West Bay and West Bay Creek, and depths along the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. After they finish up in Florida, NRT1 will continue\u00a0the rest of the 2014 survey season in Louisiana.
\n![\"Western](\"http:\/\/noaacoastsurvey.files.wordpress.com\/2014\/04\/western-gom_text_inlet.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nEast Coast<\/h3>\n
\nNRT5 will survey in the area of Eastern Long Island Sound. Along with providing contemporary hydrographic data, this survey will support the Long Island Sound Seafloor Mapping Initiative<\/a>. NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson<\/em><\/a> will also survey in Long Island Sound, performing essential habitat mapping in Fishers Island Sound, and continuing\u00a0Post Tropical Cyclone Sandy surveys that were started in 2013.
\n![\"LI](\"http:\/\/noaacoastsurvey.files.wordpress.com\/2014\/04\/li-sound_sandy_text.jpg\")
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\nIn central Chesapeake Bay, the research vessel Bay Hydro II<\/em><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0will survey critical areas, measuring depths where shifting sands and shoaling have been reported. NOAA Ship Ferdinand R. Hassler<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>will survey a\u00a0possible wind turbine site in the approaches to the Bay.
\nThe Hassler<\/em> will survey off the coast of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. This data will contribute to habitat mapping and the state\u2019s effort to locate sand resources for beach replenishment.
\nFinally, the\u00a0Thomas Jefferson<\/em> and Hassler<\/em> will survey an area offshore of Rhode Island Sound to identify a safe route for deep draft oil tankers. The area is also a potential site for wind turbines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"