Contact:  Eliot Hurwitz              FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
                                     June 5, 1996

A QUANTUM ADVANCE IN SAFE NAVIGATION COMES TO GALVESTON BAY OFFICIAL COMMISSIONING AT BAY DAY FESTIVAL

In a move that promises to bring dramatic increases in navigational safety for tankers, barges and other vessels in Galveston Bay and to increase the capability for spill response, the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in cooperation with Texas A&M University at Galveston (TAMUG), will officially commission the Houston/Galveston "P.O.R.T.S" (Physical Oceanographic Real Time System) installation this Saturday, June 8.

Officials from NOAA's National Ocean Service and TAMUG as well as Representative Steve Stockman and other dignitaries will participate in a special dedication ceremony held aboard the M/V KIRBY OBSERVER, which will be docked in La Porte at Sylvan Beach Pier during Galveston's Bay Day Festival. Even prior to its official commissioning, P.O.R.T.S. has provided significant oceanographic data to NOAA scientists tracking four oil spills in the past two months, including the one last week in Galveston Bay. NOAA acts as the scientific support team in support of the U.S. Coast Guard response to oil spills.

Houston/Galveston P.O.R.T.S. consists of a series of five real-time water-level sensors and three acoustic doppler current profilers, capable of transmitting the speed and direction of Bay currents, in real time, at several water depths. The information from these strategically placed sensors can be of tremendous value to shippers, allowing them to fine tune arrival and departure times, calculate navigation more precisely, and make best use of shipping channel depth in the bay. Although tides and currents can be predicted using traditional astronomical and geographical factors, the actual tides and currents can vary significantly due to short term weather, local currents and other conditions.

In fact, traditional-style tidal predictions based on classical factors for the Houston/Galveston area are often unreliable. In 1989, a NOAA tidal survey of Galveston Bay showed that the Galveston Bay tide tables contained only a 50% accuracy level. Over the years, dredging and sedimentation have changed circulation patterns in the Bay. Between 1986 and 1991 there were over 1,240 groundings caused by adverse tide and wind conditions, with many of these incidents involving petrochemicals.

There are several ways to obtain the P.O.R.T.S. information: by a telephone voice response; a text-based PORTS information display that the users can dial-up using a modem or a network connection such as telnet; via Internet's World Wide Web; and a visual display called PORTS Imaging Component System, which allows users to see various displays such as water level heights, currents, and meteorological data with just the click of a computer mouse.

VOICE ACCESS:       (404) 740-4975 OR 4976
PC/MODEM ACCESS:    (404) 740 - 4973 SETUP=9600,8,N,1
login: hgports
Internet Access:    telnet ceob.nos.noaa.gov
login: hgports
Internet Home Page: 
http://www-ceob.nos.noaa.gov

http://hgports2.tamug.tamu.edu

                         ###

NOTICE TO EDITORS A special press availability will be provided following the official dedication aboard the M/V KIRBY OBSERVER. Senior officials from NOAA, TAMUG, local industry and Congressman Steve Stockman representatives will be on hand to answer questions and describe the Houston/Galveston PORTS installation.