NOAA ENCŪ NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION US3LA1BD - MISSISSIPPI CANYON AND GULF OF AMERICA INDEX: NOTE A ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AIDS TO NAVIGATION AUTHORITIES 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) COMMENTS REQUESTED HURRICANES AND TROPICAL STORMS MINERAL DEVELOPMENT STRUCTURES POLLUTION REPORTS RADAR REFLECTORS SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION VESSEL TRAFFIC SERVICES WARNING - PRUDENT MARINER WATER LEVELS, CURRENTS, AND TIDES 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. 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 - 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. 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/ . 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, 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). 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. 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 Service (VTS) on the Sabine-Neches Waterway and offshore approaches. Vessel operating procedures, mandatory participation boundaries, and designated radiotelephone frequencies are published in 33 CFR 161, the U.S. Coast Pilot, and the VTS Port Arthur User Manual. Mariners should consult these sources for applicable rules and reporting requirements. "Port Arthur Traffic" is a full service VTS, providing a continuous Information Service; Traffic Organization Services and Navigational Assistance Services as required. 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 END OF FILE