NOAA ENCŪ

NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION

US5HOUEC - HOUSTON SHIP CHANNEL - SIMS BAYOU TO LIGHT DRAFT CHANNEL


INDEX:

NOTE A
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
AIDS TO NAVIGATION
POLLUTION REPORTS
RADAR REFLECTORS
AUTHORITIES
WARNING - PRUDENT MARINER
ADMINISTRATION AREA
CAUTION - DREDGED AREAS
CAUTION - SUBMARINE PIPELINES AND CABLES
CAUTION - TEMPORARY CHANGES
CAUTION - USE OF RADIO SIGNALS (LIMITATIONS)
COLREGS
HORIZONTAL DATUM
HURRICANES AND TROPICAL STORMS
NOAA WEATHER RADIO BROADCASTS
SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION
WATER LEVELS, CURRENTS, AND TIDES
VESSEL TRAFFIC SERVICES (NOTE B)
COMMENTS REQUESTED
CAUTION - QUALITY OF BATHYMETRIC DATA


NOTES:

NOTE A 
Navigation regulations are published in Chapter 2, U.S. Coast Pilot 5.  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, 8th Coast Guard District in New Orleans, LA, or at the Office of the District Engineer, Corps of Engineers in Galveston, Texas. 
Refer to charted regulation section numbers.


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


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).


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.


AUTHORITIES
Hydrography and topography by the National Ocean Service, Coast Survey, with additional data from the Corps of Engineers, and U.S. Coast Guard.


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.


ADMINISTRATION AREA
The entire extent of this ENC cell falls within the limits of an Administration Area. This area covers land, internal waters, and territorial sea.  The territorial sea is a maritime zone which the United States exercises sovereignty extending to the airspace as well as to its bed and subsoil.  For more information, please refer to the Coast Pilot.


CAUTION - DREDGED AREAS 
Improved channels are subject to shoaling, particularly at the edges.


CAUTION - SUBMARINE PIPELINES AND CABLES 
Additional uncharted submarine pipelines and submarine cables may exist within the area of this chart. Not all submarine pipelines and submarine cables are required to be buried, and those that were originally buried may have become exposed. Mariners should use extreme caution when operating vessels in depths of water comparable to their draft in areas where pipelines and cables may exist, and when anchoring, dragging, or trawling. Covered wells may be marked by lighted or unlighted buoys.


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


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.


COLREGS 
International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, 1972. The entire area of this chart falls landward of the COLREGS Demarcation Line.


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.


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.

Galveston, TX       KHB-40           162.55 MHz
Houston, TX         KGG-68           162.40 MHz


SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION
Consult U.S. Coast Pilot 5 for important supplemental information.


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.


VESSEL TRAFFIC SERVICES (NOTE B)
The U.S. Coast Guard operates a mandatory Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) system in the Houston, Galveston, and Texas City waterways.  Vessel operating procedures and designated radiotelephone frequencies are published in 33 CFR 161, Chapter 2 U.S. Coast Pilot, and/or the VTS User's Manual. Mariners should consult these sources for applicable rules and reporting requirements. "Houston Traffic" is a full service VTS, providing a continuous Information Service; Traffic Organization Services as requisite; and Navigation Assistance Service  upon request. 


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/ .


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.


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