NOAA Coast Survey Staff Deploy on Shrimp Boat

Tim Osborn
NOAA's Office of Coast Survey

February 2, 2009 — When Hurricane Dolly made landfall along the south Texas coast on July 23rd, it left behind debris and submerged hazards that posed great danger to maritime traffic.  In order to ensure that coastal waterways were safe for ships to return to the hard-hit region, NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey dispatched a team to begin post-storm surveys.

Surveys conducted by OCS help support a safe, efficient, and environmentally sound marine transportation system. The MTS employs more than 13 million and contributes more than $1 trillion to the nation’s economy.

The NOAA team sent to south Texas was equipped with state-of-the-art echo sounding equipment that was a new ‘Fly-A-Way Survey System’ — a bundle of highly portable sonar gear. The Fly-A-Way system is compact and light enough to be transportable in personal airline baggage. The system allows OCS to respond more rapidly to an emergency than if the equipment had to be driven or sent by boat from a remote location.

The team planned to get its mobile survey equipment in the water using a local pilot boat stationed at Brownsville, Texas, but when they arrived, they discovered the vessel was damaged.

Knowing the Gulf Coast economy depends on maritime commerce to bring in much needed supplies, the NOAA team needed to find another boat.

With the help of port authorities, the team found a nearby shrimp boat, the Breakaway, which survived the storm. Its crew was eager to help. Within hours, the shrimp boat — with the NOAA team onboard — was off to survey the port entrance and critical shipping lanes.

During two days on the Breakaway, the NOAA team surveyed the channels and entrance to the Port. The team used its sonar equipment to investigate damage to the large rocks forming the entrance jetties, a submerged vessel near the channel, and a number of other objects of interest.  Working with charts of the area, they were able to identify where the aids to navigation had previously been located.

These survey findings were reported to the U.S. Coast Guard and the Army Corps of Engineers. Using this and other information, some of the aids to navigation were immediately replaced, and the Coast Guard was able to reopen the port safely to ship traffic and other operations.

The mission was a resounding success thanks to the generosity and cooperation of the Breakaway crew. It was one of many examples of how NOAA worked together with coastal and marine communities to get the job done during the tumultuous 2008 hurricane season.

NOAA’s Coast Survey recently recognized the service of the Breakaway, its captain, and crew in a letter of commendation.