South Pass warning

[In Memory of Vicroy]

The USCG has issued a warning for "severe shoaling" in the South Pass of the Mississippi River with many areas of less than two feet in the center of the channel. They advise mariners to avoid South Pass.

Shucks, we knew that a long time ago, right Capt. Jack?

UV

[jackryan]

Uncle Vic,

You got that right. We came up the pass last night and there was a 28' Carolina Classic so far up a sand bar you could see the running gear. He had to be going a pretty good clip when he hit the bar. Boat is probably a total loss. We called him on the vhf to see if there was anything we could do to help. He told us that 2 guys had to be air lifted off and he was waiting for a salvage boat to arrive. He hit the bar on the west side about a mile downriver from the head of the passes. That bar was well marked when we went down about a week ago, but the Coast Guard in their infinite wisdom decided to remove all floating navigation aids since then. Had they left the floating markers, this accident probably would not have happened. I followed Uncle Vic'c advice and we never saw less that 8 feet of water. We trolled a beautiful rip south of Medusa. 10 small dolphin and some red snapper on the way in. A friend of mine released a 600# blue about a mile from us. Beautiful day offshore. Here is an article about the subject from the Times Pic:


Coast Guard, Army Corps make temporary changes to navigational aids

NEW ORLEANS – The Coast Guard, in conjunction with the Army Corps of Engineers, will be making temporary changes to the aids to navigation within South Pass, La., and its approaches for navigation purposes, Tuesday.

Severe shoaling in South Pass has significantly reduced the depth of the waterway making it impossible to ensure that navigational aids adequately mark safe routes through the pass.

Depths as low as 2 feet have been reported in the center channel and the Coast Guard has issued a marine information broadcast to mariners urging them to transit with extreme caution or use an alternate channel.

The shoaling is a concern especially with the summer months bringing more recreational boaters to the area and increasing traffic on all the local waterways. Due to the dynamic nature of the shoaling in this area, it has become impossible for the Coast Guard to ensure that its navigational aids are accurately marking safe water. For this reason temporary changes will be made to the aids to navigation within the pass and its approaches. All floating aids currently in South Pass and the approaches from the Gulf of Mexico will be temporarily discontinued. The fixed aids to navigation within the pass will have the dayboards replaced with non-lateral black and white dayboards. The approaches will be marked with danger signs warning mariners of shoaling.

These changes will remain in effect until there is sufficient water depth to safely mark the pass again.

The Army Corps of Engineers and Coast Guard have been working together closely to ensure the economic vitality of the region is maintained while ensuring the safety of the maritime community.

"The dangerous shoaling conditions have led the U.S. Coast Guard to temporarily change the aids to navigation in South Pass. We are strongly encouraging all mariners in the region to avoid South Pass,” said Capt. John Arenstam, deputy commander of Sector New Orleans. “Hydrographic surveys from Corps of Engineers have indicated many areas of less than 6 feet exist in the Pass."

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[Rawleigh]

Another Governmental braintrust!!