OPR-J359-KR-19Offshore Apalachicola, FLGulf of MexicoFugro PelagosH132866Complete 10,593 Linear Nautical Miles of survey acquisition. 8 Miles South of West PassFloridaUnited States200002019Dean R MoylesNavigable Area2019-06-202019-08-222019-10-24Multibeam Echo SounderMultibeam Echo Sounder BackscattermetersUTC NAD83 Zone 16NAtlantic Hydrographic BranchAny revisions to the Descriptive Report (DR) applied during office processing are shown in red italic text. The DR is maintained as a field unit product, therefore all information and recommendations within this report are considered preliminary unless otherwise noted. The final disposition of survey data is represented in the NOAA nautical chart products. All pertinent records for this survey are archived at the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) and can be retrieved via https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/. Products created during office processing were generated in NAD83 UTM 16N, MLLW. All references to other horizontal or vertical datums in this report are applicable to the processed hydrographic data provided by the field unit.ContractorSurvey H13286 (Table 1) is located 8 miles South of West Pass (Figure 1). The M/V Go Liberty acquired complete coverage multibeam echosounder (MBES) and multibeam echosounder acoustic backscatter (MBAB) within the assigned survey limits from 22 August 2019 to 24 October 2019.29.549186111185.202205555629.3764585.0424055556Survey H13286 relative to overall sheet limits of OPR-J359-KR-19file:///T:/Survey/H13286_J359_KR_19/AHB_H13286/01_SAR/Reports/Survey/Descriptive_Report/Report/SupportFiles/H13286_Overview.jpgSurvey limits were acquired in accordance with the requirements in the Project Instructions and the HSSD.The Vicinity of Apalachicola project will provide contemporary surveys to update National Ocean Service (NOS) nautical charting products. The survey areas are offshore of Apalachicola Bay and Joseph Bay, FL. The survey will provide updated bathymetry and feature data to address concerns of migrating shoals, thus reducing the risk to navigation within the project area. The Apalachicola Surveys delineate the western extent to the Big Bend Mapping project, a Florida Coastal Mapping Program (FCMaP) priority. This multi-year, multi-agency mapping project will fill in an area in which only 2% of the seafloor is mapped to modern standards. Improving the understanding of the bathymetry, geomorphology, bio-diversity and distribution of habitats in this region will support Floridian fisheries, coastal modeling, and resource management. The project will cover approximately 323 square nautical miles of high priority survey area identified in the latest iteration of NOAA HSD's risk based prioritization model. Data from this project will supersede all prior survey data providing modern hydrographic survey data for this area and updating the local charting products. The entire survey is adequate to supersede previous data.Full coverage MBES and MBAB (Table 2 and Figures 2-4) were achieved within the survey limits of H13286.All waters in survey areaComplete coverage (HSSD 2019 5.2.2.3)Survey coverage was in accordance with the requirements listed above and in the HSSD.Survey H13286 complete coverage MBESfile:///T:/Survey/H13286_J359_KR_19/AHB_H13286/01_SAR/Reports/Survey/Descriptive_Report/Report/SupportFiles/H13286_Coverage.jpgSurvey H13286 1m complete coverage MBES density QCfile:///T:/Survey/H13286_J359_KR_19/AHB_H13286/01_SAR/Reports/Survey/Descriptive_Report/Report/SupportFiles/H13286_MB_1m_MLLW_FINAL.QAv5.density.pngSurvey H13286 2m complete coverage MBES density QCfile:///T:/Survey/H13286_J359_KR_19/AHB_H13286/01_SAR/Reports/Survey/Descriptive_Report/Report/SupportFiles/H13286_MB_2m_MLLW_FINAL.QAv5.density.pngM/V Go Liberty01494.090000066.44001494.090000064.4404.45800052.872019-08-222019-08-272019-08-292019-08-302019-08-312019-09-032019-09-042019-09-052019-09-062019-09-072019-09-082019-09-092019-09-102019-09-112019-09-122019-09-132019-09-142019-09-152019-09-172019-09-182019-10-24Refer to the Data Acquisition and Processing Report (DAPR) for a complete description of data acquisition and processing systems, survey vessels, quality control procedures and data processing methods. Additional information to supplement sounding and survey data, and any deviations from the DAPR are discussed in the following sections.M/V Go Liberty15010M/V Go Libertyfile:///T:/Survey/H13286_J359_KR_19/AHB_H13286/01_SAR/Reports/Survey/Descriptive_Report/Report/SupportFiles/MV_GOLiberty.jpgM/V Go Liberty (Table 5 and Figure 5) acquired MBES, MBAB, surface sound velocity, sound velocity profiles, attitude and positioning data within the survey limits of H13286 (Table 6). For a detailed listing of equipment used to acquire survey data, refer to the DAPR submitted with this report under Project Reports. Teledyne RESONSeaBat 7125 SV2MBESTeledyne RESONSVP 70Sound Speed SystemAML OceanographicSmart SVPConductivity, Temperature, and Depth SensorTeledyne OceanscienceCastAway-CTDConductivity, Temperature, and Depth SensorApplanixPOS MV 320 v5Positioning and Attitude SystemFor a detailed listing of equipment, refer to the DAPR submitted with this report. Crosslines for survey H13286 were acquired in accordance with section 5.2.4.2 of the HSSD 2019 (Figure 6). Of the 12,394,512 nodes compared between H13286 mainscheme MBES and MBES crosslines, 100% were within 1m difference. The mean difference is 0.002m, with a standard deviation of 0.06m (Figure 7). H13286 MBES mainscheme and MBES crossline distributionfile:///T:/Survey/H13286_J359_KR_19/AHB_H13286/01_SAR/Reports/Survey/Descriptive_Report/Report/SupportFiles/H13286_XL_dist.jpgH13286 MBES mainscheme differenced from MBES crosslines statistical outputfile:///T:/Survey/H13286_J359_KR_19/AHB_H13286/01_SAR/Reports/Survey/Descriptive_Report/Report/SupportFiles/H13286_XL_dif.jpgERS via VDATUM0.10.101M/V Go Liberty0.915N/AN/A0.25Survey H13286 uncertainty values (Tables 7 and 8) were evaluated both in CARIS HIPS 9.1 and via Pydro QC Tools v3.0.19. The finalized 1m (Figure 8)and 2m (Figure 9) bathymetric grids both meet uncertainty standards with a minimum of 99.5% of nodes passing. H13286 1m finalized grid TPU QCfile:///T:/Survey/H13286_J359_KR_19/AHB_H13286/01_SAR/Reports/Survey/Descriptive_Report/Report/SupportFiles/H13286_MB_1m_MLLW_FINAL.QAv5.tvu_qc.pngH13286 2m finalized grid TPU QCfile:///T:/Survey/H13286_J359_KR_19/AHB_H13286/01_SAR/Reports/Survey/Descriptive_Report/Report/SupportFiles/H13286_MB_2m_MLLW_FINAL.QAv5.tvu_qc.pngA total of 2 contemporary surveys are available to compare to H13286: H13185 and H13282 (Table 9).H13282200002019Fugro Pelagos, Inc.SSurvey H13282 was acquired by Fugro Pelagos in 2019 as a part of OPR-J359-KR-19. Of the 1,085,300 grid nodes compared between H13286 and H13282, 100% agree within 50cm (Figure 10).Survey H13286 junction with Survey H13282file:///T:/Survey/H13286_J359_KR_19/AHB_H13286/01_SAR/Reports/Survey/Descriptive_Report/Report/SupportFiles/JNX_H13282.jpgH13285200002019Fugro Pelagos, Inc.WSurvey H13285 was acquired by Fugro Pelagos in 2019 as a part of OPR-J359-KR-19. Of the 1,550,023 grid nodes compared between H13286 and H13285, 100% agree within 50cm (Figure 11).Survey H13286 junction with Survey H13285file:///T:/Survey/H13286_J359_KR_19/AHB_H13286/01_SAR/Reports/Survey/Descriptive_Report/Report/SupportFiles/JNX_H13285.jpgSonar system quality control checks were conducted as detailed in the quality control section of the DAPR.None ExistThere were no conditions or deficiencies that affected equipment operational effectiveness.None ExistThere were no other factors that affected corrections to soundings.Sound velocity profiles were acquired every two hours from the M/V Go Liberty using either an AML SV&P or a Teledyne Oceanscience UCTD SV&P (Figure 12).Refer to the DAPR for additional information. Temporal and geographic distribution of SVP casts within survey H13286file:///T:/Survey/H13286_J359_KR_19/AHB_H13286/01_SAR/Reports/Survey/Descriptive_Report/Report/SupportFiles/H13286_SVP.jpgAll equipment and survey methods were used as detailed in the DAPR.All data reduction procedures conform to those detailed in the DAPR.All sounding systems were calibrated as detailed in the DAPR.All equipment and survey methods utilized in the acquisition and processing of Survey H13286 backscatter (Figure 13) are detailed in the DAPR.Survey H13286 backscatter coveragefile:///T:/Survey/H13286_J359_KR_19/AHB_H13286/01_SAR/Reports/Survey/Descriptive_Report/Report/SupportFiles/H13286_MBAB.jpgNOAA Profile Version 2019H13286_MB_1m_MLLWCARIS Raster Surface (CUBE)110.1727.20CMC_1mComplete MBESH13286_MB_1m_MLLW_FinalCARIS Raster Surface (CUBE)110.1720.00CMC_1mComplete MBESH13286_MB_2m_MLLWCARIS Raster Surface (CUBE)210.1627.2CMC_2mComplete MBESH13286_MB_2m_MLLW_FinalCARIS Raster Surface (CUBE)218.0027.2CMC_2mComplete MBESH13286_MBAB_1m_GoLiberty_400kHzMB Backscatter Mosaic1N/AComplete MBESH13286_MBAB_2m_GoLiberty_400kHzMB Backscatter Mosaic2N/AComplete MBESAdditional information discussing the vertical or horizontal control for this survey can be found in the accompanying HVCR.Mean Lower Low WaterERS via VDATUMEC_Apalachicola_xyNAD83-MLLW_geoid12b.csarNorth American Datum 1983Projected UTM 16All positioning and attitude data associated with OPR-J359-KR-19 was post-processed in POSPac MMS using PP-RTX methods. For further discussion, reference the HVCR and or DAPR submitted with this report. A chart comparison was conducted using the Triangle Rule script within the Chart Review Tool of Pydro QC Tools. A combined s57 file of charted soundings extracted from ENCs listed in the project instructions and an s57 file of surveyed soundings were compared with the following results (Figure 14): Survey H13286 surveyed soundings show moderate variance to charted soundings due to shifting sandwave crests. 1,152 of the 61,820 surveyed soundings compared were flagged by QC Tools as being shoal to charted depths by greater than 1ft (Figure 15). 1,080 surveyed soundings were between 1-3ft shoal to charted; 69 surveyed soundings were between 4-5ft shoal to charted; 3 surveyed soundings were 6ft shoal to charted. Only 1 of the 3 survey soundings 6ft shoal to charted values falls within the assigned survey limits and indicates an uncharted wreck located at 29-30-05.89N 085-06-48.91W (Figure 16). Reference the Final Feature File associated with this survey for further details.Pydro QC Tools chart review output of H13286 surveyed soundings shoal to charted soundingsfile:///T:/Survey/H13286_J359_KR_19/AHB_H13286/01_SAR/Reports/Survey/Descriptive_Report/Report/SupportFiles/H13286_QCTools_HeatMap.pngPydro QC Tools output of areas of shoaling greater than 1ftfile:///T:/Survey/H13286_J359_KR_19/AHB_H13286/01_SAR/Reports/Survey/Descriptive_Report/Report/SupportFiles/H13286_ChartComp.jpgSurvey H13286 sounding shoal to charted; uncharted wreckfile:///T:/Survey/H13286_J359_KR_19/AHB_H13286/01_SAR/Reports/Survey/Descriptive_Report/Report/SupportFiles/H13286_wreck.jpgUS4FL68M80000152019-02-152019-02-15falseUS3GC06M456394262019-09-272019-10-21falseNo Maritime Boundary Points were assigned for this survey.One charted wreck and one obstruction area were assigned for investigation within the survey limits of H13286. Reference the Final Feature File associated with this survey for further details.One uncharted wreck and one potential obstruction were found within the survey limits of H13286. Reference the Final Feature File associated with this survey for further details.No shoals or potentially hazardous features exist for this survey.No channels exist for this survey. There are no designated anchorages, precautionary areas, safety fairways, traffic separation schemes, pilot boarding areas, or channel and range lines within the survey limits.A total of 8 bottom samples were assigned and investigated within the survey limits of survey H13286. Reference the Final Feature File associated with this survey for further details.Shoreline was not assigned in the Hydrographic Survey Project Instructions or Statement of Work.No Aids to Navigation (ATONs) exist for this survey.No overhead features exist for this survey.No submarine features exist for this survey.No platforms exist for this survey.No ferry routes or terminals exist for this survey.No abnormal seafloor and/or environmental conditions exist for this survey.No present or planned construction or dredging exist within the survey limits.No new surveys or further investigations are recommended for this area.No new insets are recommended for this area.As Chief of Party, field operations for this hydrographic survey were conducted under my direct supervision, with frequent personal checks of progress and adequacy. I have reviewed the attached survey data and reports.All field sheets, this Descriptive Report, and all accompanying records and data are approved. All records are forwarded for final review and processing to the Processing Branch.The survey data meets or exceeds requirements as set forth in the NOS Hydrographic Surveys Specifications and Deliverables, Field Procedures Manual, Letter Instructions, and all HSD Technical Directives. These data are adequate to supersede charted data in their common areas. This survey is complete and no additional work is required with the exception of deficiencies noted in the Descriptive Report.Dean R MoylesChief of Party2020-01-17