NOAA ENCŪ

NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION

US5PLQFK - MISSISSIPPI RIVER - SOUTHWEST PASS - MILE 0-3


INDEX:

NOTE A
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
AIDS TO NAVIGATION
AUTHORITIES
ADMINISTRATION AREA
CAUTION - USACE HYDROGRAPHIC SURVEYS
CAUTION - GAS AND OIL WELL STRUCTURES
CAUTION - QUALITY OF BATHYMETRIC DATA
CAUTION - SUBMARINE PIPELINES AND CABLES
CAUTION - TEMPORARY CHANGES
CAUTION - USE OF RADIO SIGNALS (LIMITATIONS)
COLREGS
COMMENTS REQUESTED
HORIZONTAL DATUM
HURRICANES AND TROPICAL STORMS
MINERAL DEVELOPMENT STRUCTURES
MISSISSIPPI RIVER - SOUTH PASS AND SOUTHWEST PASS
NOAA WEATHER RADIO BROADCASTS
POLLUTION REPORTS
RADAR REFLECTORS
RULES OF THE ROAD (ABRIDGED)
SOUNDING AND COASTLINE DATUM
SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION
VESSEL TRAFFIC SERVICES
WARNING - PRUDENT MARINER
WATER LEVELS, CURRENTS, AND TIDES


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 New Orleans, LA. 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.


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.


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 over 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 - USACE HYDROGRAPHIC SURVEYS
USACE conducts hydrographic surveys to monitor navigation conditions. These surveys are not intended to detect underwater features. Uncharted features hazardous to surface navigation are not expected but may exist in federal channels. For more information visit https://navigation.usace.army.mil/Survey/Hydro/.


CAUTION - GAS AND OIL WELL STRUCTURES
Uncharted platforms, gas and oil well structures, pipes, piles and stakes can exist within the limits of this chart.


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 - 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.


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/ .


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 as 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.


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).


MISSISSIPPI RIVER - SOUTH PASS AND SOUTHWEST PASS
The Project depth for South Pass is 5.1 meters/17 feet and for the Southwest pass is 13.7 meters/45 feet through Head of Passes. Mariners are advised that there is severe shoaling at South Pass. Shoaling to bare at MLLW was found in June of 2014. The controlling depths and regulations may be obtained from the Office of the District Engineer, Crops of Engineers in New Orleans.


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.

Buras, LA  		WXL-41		162.475 MHz


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.


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 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".


SOUNDING AND COASTLINE DATUM
Soundings and coastlines refer to Low Water Reference Plane (LWRP), related to Mean Sea Level, established by the Corps of Engineers. Heights and contour elevations refer to mean sea level. Bridge and overhead cable clearances refer to the Mississippi River 1927 High Water Plane (HWP).


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


VESSEL TRAFFIC SERVICES 
The U.S. Coast Guard operates a mandatory Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) system in the Lower Mississippi River. Vessel operating procedures and designated radiotelephone frequencies are published in 33 CFR 161, the U.S. Coast Pilot, and/or the VTS User's Manual. Mariners should consult these sources for applicable rules and reporting requirements. Although mandatory VTS participation is limited to the navigable waters of the United States, certain vessels are encouraged or may be required, as a condition of port entry, to report beyond this area to facilitate advance vessel traffic management within the VTS area.


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.


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 .


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