Ports

October 1, 2010

The National Ocean Service (NOS) is responsible for providing real-time oceanographic data and other navigation products to promote safe and efficient navigation within U.S. waters. The need for these products is great and rapidly increasing; maritime commerce has tripled in the last 50 years and continues to grow. Ships are getting larger, drawing more water and pushing channel depth limits to derive benefits from every last inch of draft. By volume, more than 95 percent of U.S. international trade moves through the nation's ports and harbors, with about 50 percent of these goods being hazardous materials. A major challenge facing the nation is to improve the economic efficiency and competitiveness of U.S. maritime commerce, while reducing risks to life, property, and the coastal environment. With increased marine commerce come increased risks to the coastal environment, making marine navigation safety a serious national concern. From 1996 through 2000, for example, commercial vessels in the United States were involved in nearly 12,000 collisions, allusions’, and groundings.





PORTS^®

PORTS^® is a decision support tool that improves the safety and efficiency of maritime commerce and coastal resource management through the integration of real-time environmental observations, forecasts and other geospatial information. PORTS^® measures and disseminates observations and predictions of water levels, currents, salinity, and meteorological parameters (e.g., winds, atmospheric pressure, air and water temperatures) that mariners need to navigate safely.

It is really important that the ports are a useful tool that we and marine time commerce can save lives.  Technology has grown so much that the ports use telephone and internet communication for our protection.