NOAA ENC

NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION

US5LCHCC - APPROACHES TO CALCASIEU RIVER


INDEX:

NOTE A
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
AIDS TO NAVIGATION
AUTHORITIES
CAUTION - PILES
CAUTION - QUALITY OF BATHYMETRIC DATA
CAUTION - SUBMARINE PIPELINES AND CABLES
CAUTION - TEMPORARY CHANGES
CAUTION - USE OF RADIO SIGNALS (LIMITATIONS)
CAUTION - USACE HYDROGRAPHIC SURVEYS
COMMENTS REQUESTED
CONTIGUOUS ZONE
EXCLUSIVE ECONOMIC ZONE (EEZ)
HURRICANES AND TROPICAL STORMS
MINERAL DEVELOPMENT STRUCTURES
POLLUTION REPORTS
RACING BUOYS
RADAR REFLECTORS
SMALL CRAFT WARNINGS
SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION
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.


CAUTION - PILES
Charted piles in Calcasieu Lake may be submerged. 


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.


CAUTION - USACE HYDROGRAPHIC SURVEYS
USACE conducts hydrographic surveys to monitor navigation conditions. These surveys are not intended to detect underwater features. Undetected features hazardous to surface navigation may exist in federal channels, as might shoaling, particularly along the edges of channels. For more information visit https://navigation.usace.army.mil/Survey/Hydro/.


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/. 


CONTIGUOUS ZONE
The Contiguous Zone is a zone contiguous to the territorial sea, in which the United States may exercise the control necessary to prevent and punish infringement within its territory or territorial sea of its customs, fiscal, immigration, cultural heritage, or sanitary laws and regulations. For more information, please refer to the Coast Pilot.


EXCLUSIVE ECONOMIC ZONE (EEZ)
The EEZ is a zone beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea within which the U.S. has certain sovereign rights and jurisdiction. Under some U.S. laws, the inner limit of the EEZ extends landward to the seaward limit of the states submerged lands. For more information, please refer to the Coast Pilot.


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).


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).


RACING BUOYS
Racing buoys within the limits of this chart are not shown hereon. Information may be obtained from the U.S. Coast Guard District Offices as racing and other private buoys are not all listed in the U.S. Coast Guard Light List.


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.


SMALL CRAFT WARNINGS
Small crafts should stay clear of large commercial and government vessels, even if small crafts have the right-of-way. Small craft operators are warned to beware of severe water turbulence caused by large vessels traversing narrow waterways. All crafts should avoid areas where the skin divers flag, a red square with a diagonal white stripe, is displayed.


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


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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