NOAA ENCŪ

NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION

US3AK1FW - SITKA SOUND, AK


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 - QUALITY OF BATHYMETRIC DATA
CAUTION - SUBMARINE PIPELINES AND CABLES
CAUTION - VESSEL TRANSITING NOTE
COLREGS, 80.1705
NOAA WEATHER RADIO BROADCASTS
RADAR REFLECTORS
VEGETATION
VESSEL TRANSITING
WATER LEVELS, CURRENTS, AND TIDES
COMMENTS REQUESTED


NOTES:

NOTE A 
Navigation regulations are published in Chapter 2 of each regional U.S. Coast Pilot. Additions or revisions to Chapter 2 are published in the Notice to Mariners. Information concerning the regulations may be obtained from the Coast Guard District Commander. 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 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 8 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 www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov


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


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.


CAUTION - VESSEL TRANSITING NOTE
The U.S. Coast Guard and the Pacific States/British Columbia Oil Spill Task Force endorse a system of voluntary measures and minimum distances from shore for certain commercial vessels transiting along the coast anywhere between Cook Inlet, Alaska and San Diego, California. See U.S. Coast Pilots 8, Chapter 3 for details.


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


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.

Mt. Robert Barron, AK		        KZZ-87		162.450 MHz
Duffield Peninsula, AK			WZ-2555		152.525MHz
Manleyville, AK		        	KAD-96		162.500 MHz
Cape Fanshaw, AK			KZZ-88		162.425 MHz
Sitka, AK				WXJ-80		162.550 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.


VEGETATION
The land is generally heavily wooded. The woods decrease in density with elevation and the higher elevations are bare.


VESSEL TRANSITING
The U.S. Coast Guard and the Pacific States/British Columbia Oil Spill Task Force endorse a system of voluntary measures and minimum distances from shore for certain commercial vessels transiting along the coast anywhere between Cook Inlet, Alaska and San Diego, California. See U.S. Coast Pilot 8 or 9, Chapter 3 for details.


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/.


END OF FILE
