NOAA ENCŪ

NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION

US4AK4VK - COOK INLET - APPROACHES TO ANCHORAGE


INDEX:

NOTE A
AIDS TO NAVIGATION
POLLUTION REPORTS
CAUTION - USE OF RADIO SIGNALS (LIMITATIONS)
SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION
CAUTION - TEMPORARY CHANGES
WARNING - PRUDENT MARINER
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
AUTHORITIES
CAUTION - OIL EXPLORATION AND PRODUCTION
CAUTION - LAND UPLIFT
CAUTION - QUALITY OF BATHYMETRIC DATA
CAUTION - SUBMARINE PIPELINES AND CABLES
COLREGS, 80.1705
MINERAL DEVELOPMENT STRUCTURES
NOAA WEATHER RADIO BROADCASTS
RADAR REFLECTORS
WATER LEVELS, CURRENTS, AND TIDES
COMMENTS REQUESTED


NOTES:

NOTE A
Navigation regulations are published in Chapter 2, U.S. Coast Pilot 9. Additions or revisions to Chapter 2 are published in the Notices to Mariners. Information concerning the regulations may be obtained at the Office of the Commander, 17th Coast Guard District in Juneau, AK or at the Office of the District Engineer, Corps of Engineers in Anchorage, AK.  Refer to charted regulation section numbers.


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 CFR153).


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 9 for important supplemental information.


CAUTION - TEMPORARY CHANGES
Temporary changes or defects in aids to navigation are not indicated. See Local Notice to Mariners. The buoys in Cook Inlet are seasonally maintained from May 1 to Nov. 1. For details see U.S. Coast Guard Light List.


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 www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov.


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


CAUTION - OIL EXPLORATION AND PRODUCTION
Oil exploration and production operations are being conducted in the waters of Cook Inlet. Drilling vessels and movable and permanent platforms are being used. Only permanent platforms are charted. Mariners are urged to exercise caution when transiting the area.


CAUTION - LAND UPLIFT
The Cook Inlet area is affected by land uplift due to forces such as post-seismic crustal rebound. As a result, the tidal datums including mean lower low water, the plane of reference used for depth soundings, have changed throughout this region. Tidal datums were updated in 1999 and depths of 21.0 meters/ 69 feet or less were adjusted accordingly to account for this uplift. As the uplift rates can only be estimated and areas continue to rise, depths may be shoaler than charted. Mariners are urged to exercise caution.


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.


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.


COLREGS, 80.1705
International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at sea, 1972. The entire area of this chart falls seaward of the COLREGS Demarcation Line.


MINERAL DEVELOPMENT STRUCTURES
Obstruction lights and sound (fog) signals are required for fixed mineral development structures shown, subject to approval by the District Commander, U.S. Coast Guard (33 CFR 67).


NOAA WEATHER RADIO BROADCASTS
The NOAA Weather Radio stations listed below provide 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.

Anchorage, AK		KEC-43		162.550 MHz
Wasilla, AK      	KZZ-98     	162.400 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.


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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