NOAA ENCŪ

NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION

US4NC1GM - NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN


INDEX:

NOTE A 
HORIZONTAL DATUM 
AIDS TO NAVIGATION
POLLUTION REPORTS
CAUTION - USE OF RADIO SIGNALS (LIMITATIONS)
SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION
CAUTION - TEMPORARY CHANGES
WARNING - PRUDENT MARINER
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
AUTHORITIES
CAUTION - MARINERS
CAUTION - QUALITY OF BATHYMETRIC DATA
FISHING AND HUNTING STRUCTURES
HURRICANES AND TROPICAL STORMS
NOAA WEATHER RADIO BROADCASTS
RADAR REFLECTORS
RULES OF THE ROAD (ABRIDGED)
WATER LEVELS, CURRENTS, AND TIDES
COMMENTS REQUESTED


NOTES:

NOTE A
Navigation regulations are published in Chapter 2, U.S. Coast Pilot 4. Additions or revisions to Chapter 2 are published in the Notice to Mariners. Information concerning the regulations may be obtained at the Office of the Commander, 5th Coast Guard District in Portsmouth, Virginia or at the Office of the District Engineer, Corps of Engineers in Wilmington, North Carolina. 
Refer to charted regulation section numbers.


HORIZONTAL DATUM 
The NOAA ENC references the World Geodetic System of 1984 (WGS-84). For charting purposes, the horizontal control of the current realization of WGS-84 is functionally equivalent to the International Terrestrial Reference Frame 2020 (ITRF2020) at the meter level for charts at scales of 1:5,000 or smaller. 


AIDS TO NAVIGATION
Consult U.S. Coast Guard Light List for supplemental information concerning aids to navigation.


POLLUTION REPORTS
Report all spills of oil and hazardous substances to the National Response Center via 1-800-424-8802 (toll free), or to the nearest U.S. Coast Guard facility if telephone communication is impossible (33 CFR 153).


CAUTION - USE OF RADIO SIGNALS (LIMITATIONS)
Limitations on the use of radio signals as aids to marine navigation can be found in the U.S. Coast Guard Light Lists and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Publication 117. 
Radio direction-finder bearings to commercial broadcasting stations are subject to error and should be used with caution.


SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION
Consult U.S. Coast Pilot 4 for important supplemental information.


CAUTION - TEMPORARY CHANGES
Temporary changes or defects in aids to navigation are not indicated. See Local Notice to Mariners.


WARNING - PRUDENT MARINER
The prudent mariner will not rely solely on any single aid to navigation, particularly on floating aids. See U.S. Coast Guard Light List and U.S. Coast Pilot for details.


ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Additional information can be obtained at http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov .


AUTHORITIES
Hydrography and topography by the National Ocean Service, Coast Survey, with additional data from the U.S. Coast Guard, Geological Survey, and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.


CAUTION - MARINERS
Mariners are warned to stay clear of the protective riprap surrounding navigational light structures shown.


CAUTION - QUALITY OF BATHYMETRIC DATA
The areas represented by the object M_QUAL (Quality of data) are approximate due to generalizing for clarity. Caution is advised, particularly for nearshore navigation or voyage planning. M_QUAL represents areas of uniform quality of bathymetric data. The CATZOC (Category of zone of confidence in data) attribute of M_QUAL provides an assessment of the overall zone of confidence.


FISHING AND HUNTING STRUCTURES
Uncharted fish and wildlife harvesting devices and structures such as fish traps, pound nets, crab traps, and duck blinds, some submerged, may exist in the area of this chart, particularly in the nearshore area. Mariners should proceed with caution.


HURRICANES AND TROPICAL STORMS
Hurricanes, tropical storms and other major storms may cause considerable damage to marine structures, aids to navigation and moored vessels, resulting in submerged debris in unknown locations. 
Charted soundings, channel depths and shoreline may not reflect actual conditions following these storms. Fixed aids to navigation may have been damaged or destroyed. Buoys may have been moved from their charted positions, damaged, sunk, extinguished or otherwise made inoperative. Mariners should not rely upon the position or operation of an aid to navigation. Wrecks and submerged obstructions may have been displaced from charted locations. Pipelines may have become uncovered or moved. 
Mariners are urged to exercise extreme caution and are requested to report aids to navigation discrepancies and hazards to navigation to the nearest United States Coast Guard unit.


NOAA WEATHER RADIO BROADCASTS
The NOAA Weather Radio station listed below provides continuous weather broadcasts. 
The reception range is typically 20 to 40 nautical miles from the antenna site, but can be as much as 100 nautical miles for stations at high elevations.

Cape Hatteras, NC	 KIG-77        162.475 MHz


RADAR REFLECTORS
Radar reflectors have been placed on many floating aids to navigation. Individual radar reflector identification on these aids has been omitted from this chart.


RULES OF THE ROAD (ABRIDGED)
Motorless craft have the right-of-way in almost all cases. 
Sailing vessels and motorboats less than 19.8 meters / 65 feet in length, shall not hamper, in a narrow channel, the safe passage of a vessel which can navigate only inside that channel. 
A motorboat being overtaken has the right-of-way. 
Motorboats approaching head to head or nearly so should pass port to port. 
When motorboats approach each other at right angles or obliquely, the boat on the right has the right-of-way in most cases. Motorboats must keep to the right in narrow channels when safe and practicable. 
Mariners are urged to become familiar with the complete text of the Rules of the Road in U.S. Coast Guard publication "Amalgamated International & U.S. Inland Navigation Rules".


WATER LEVELS, CURRENTS, AND TIDES
Real-time water levels, tide predictions, and tidal current predictions are available on the internet from NOAA's Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS) at https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/water_level_info.html and https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/currents_info.html .


COMMENTS REQUESTED
NOAA encourages users to submit inquiries, discrepancies, or comments about this chart via NOAA's ASSIST tool at https://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/customer-service/assist/ .


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