NOAA plots Texas coast navigation

   This winter the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will begin a year-long survey of the sea floor in the port of Houston and Galveston Bay navigational areas to aid efforts to bring more maritime trade to the Houston area.
   NOAA’s navigation survey team arrived in Galveston this week to begin pre-survey preparations with mariners and federal partners.
   “With bigger ships, crowded sea lanes, and more uses of ocean areas, shipping today is increasingly a task of precision and accuracy,” said NOAA Corps Cmdr. Todd Haupt, chief of the Office of Coast Survey’s Navigation Response Branch, in a statement.
   “Hurricanes can change the shape of the ocean floor and move underwater debris, which can cause problems for mariners. NOAA’s navigation team will conduct hydrographic surveys to search for changes caused by Hurricanes Ike and Rita as well as other strong storms,” he said.
   The survey project, part of NOAA’s mapping and charting mission, is managed by NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey, which produces and maintains the nation’s navigational charts. Coast Survey first charted the Galveston entrance in 1853, after being tasked by the federal government with creating charts of the coastal waters so that the nation’s shipping industry could expand.
   NOAA has six navigation response teams that survey port areas at the request of port officials or the Coast Guard. The Texas team is coming from Michigan, where they have been surveying the Great Lakes. The team also worked off the coast of Virginia earlier this year, speeding the resumption of maritime commerce after Hurricane Irene hit the eastern seaboard.