Shipping Industry

Significance of Ports in Gulf of Mexico

The ports of the northern Gulf of Mexico play a critical economic role for a number of industries including shipping, oil and gas, tourism, and fisheries. Nine out of the twelve largest U.S. ports with tonnage greater than 50 million tones are located along the Gulf of Mexico. The economic impact of these industries is not limited to the Gulf coast as 52.3% of the US tonnage reaching the US by waterways transits through the Gulf of Mexico (NOAA 1999). In particular, several Texas ports are within the top 25 largest U.S ports as ranked by total cargo volume (Year 2000). These Texas ports include: Port of Houston (2nd), Port of Corpus Christi (5th), Port of Beaumont (6th), Texas City (10th), and Port Freeport (24th) largest U.S. Port ranked by total cargo volume (year 2000). In addition, smaller ports such as the Port of Galveston not only target traditional shipping industry but also target shipping needs related to tourism.

Navigation Associated with Ports and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GIWW)

Ship Captains navigating along the coast of Texas will significantly benefit from this improved forecasting system. As the waters of the Texas coast are relatively shallow, the vessels navigate mainly in man-made channels established and maintained either to access the Texas ports (ship channels) or to transport goods within the protected confines of the barrier islands (GIWW). The ship channels allow the entrance of deep draft vessels to major ports such as Galveston or Corpus Christi. The Corpus Christi ship channel has a minimum depth of 45 feet (~13,72 Meter) and will be deepened to 52 feet (~15,85 Meter) in the near future. For tankers with deeper draft, the possibility exists to unload part of their cargo offshore at an unloading station. In such cases, important concerns would include how much to unload and how to ensure a safe draft. Presently these questions cannot be answered accurately as we do not have a good model for water level forecasts. To avoid the possibility of a costly grounding, the captains typically unload more cargo than necessary. A real-time model for water level forecasts would allow a more accurate assessment of the amount of cargo to unload and much lower fees. Deciding how much cargo to keep or unload in order to pass under a bridge is another problem for which a good forecasting model would be helpful.

The GIWW is a partly natural, partly artificial, sheltered passage for barges to ship between Apalachee Bay, Florida and Brownsville, Texas. It has a minimum depth of 12 feet (~3.66 Meter) and protects the ships from the rough open ocean. One natural part of the GIWW is located in Corpus Christi Bay, but the bay has only a typical depth between 2 and 25 feet (~0.61 Meter to 7.62 Meter). So in some places Corpus Christi Bay has been deepened to achieve the minimum depth of the GIWW. To optimize the amount of loaded cargo, barges often ride just one foot (~0.31 Meter) above the bottom. Particularly because of the low clearance between the vessel draft and the waterway floor, groundings are relatively frequent along the GIWW. In 2000 the U.S. Coast Guard recorded 191 incidents along the Texas GIWW and groundings accounted for 69 incidents (36%). An accurate water level forecast model would allow the captains to make better decisions as to the loading of their vessels and likely decrease the number of groundings along the GIWW.

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