During any given watch, the team will monitor the progress of deep-draft tankers as they make the nearly eight-hour transit from the Gulf of Mexico. Freighters and tugs can make the transit in about six hours. Some transits will receive a security escort, and a moving security zone is activated as the vessel is moving in the channel for shipments that are considered dangerous cargos, or “military outload” shipments.

There is close coordination between VTS and other Coast Guard operations in the area, including the MSU Operations Center (OPCEN) and Coast Guard boat forces, inspectors, investigators, and law enforcement personnel.

“We’ve got a pretty solid core of stakeholders and original plank owners – people who work closely with us and have done so from the beginning,” Measells said.

In fact, they all keep an eye out for each other, he said. “We coordinate with local law enforcement whenever needed and we monitor the law enforcement cameras.”

In the event of waterway closures or catastrophic events, VTS facilitates Coast Guard waterway re-constitution efforts through activation and leadership of the Port Coordination Team, which is comprised of facility representatives, pilots, other government agencies, vessel-operating company representatives, and stakeholders.

VTS Port Arthur functions as the VTS and Waterways Department of MSU Port Arthur, which is itself a subunit of Sector Houston-Galveston. Sector Houston-Galveston has its own Vessel Traffic Service, which is aligned and co-located with the Houston-Galveston Sector Command Center. MSU Port Arthur has its own captain of the port (COTP), Capt. Joe Paitl, and operates a 24-hour OPCEN to support Coast Guard missions on the Sabine-Neches Waterway.

Mariners operating along the Sabine-Neches Waterway take advantage of up-to-the-minute hydrological and weather information courtesy of the Physical Oceanographic Real-Time System (PORTS®), a service of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. PORTS provides the up-to-the-minute tides, currents, barometric pressure, temperature, and winds – including speed, direction, and gusts. Seafarers use PORTS to help navigate the waterways safely, and the VTS team uses the information to advise mariners.

“We’re in constant communication with individual U.S.-flagged inland vessel captains who account for over 48,000 vessel transits per year,” Measells said. “And we’re in nearly constant contact with the Sabine Pilots Association pilots and their dispatch office staff for scheduling information.”

“VTS adds utility for everyone on the waterway,” said Capt. Duane Bennett, president of the Sabine Pilots Association. “We have high volume and different types of traffic.”

Bennett said the pilots usually know where the large ships are, and they call VTS when they have arrived aboard an inbound ship or shifting from one ship to another. But, he said, VTS can be especially helpful to the tugs and barges, which rely on VTS to tell them where the ships are and what’s moving on the waterway.

The Coast Guard operates 12 Vessel Traffic Services: Prince William Sound in Valdez, Alaska; Puget Sound in Seattle, Wash.; San Francisco and the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in California; Houston-Galveston and Port Arthur in Texas; Berwick Bay in Morgan City, La.; Louisville, Ky., on the Ohio River; St. Mary’s River, which connects lakes Huron and Superior between Ontario and Michigan; Tampa, Fla.; and New York.

COTP Paitl has had prior experience and VTS oversight responsibilities for managing the busy waterways just down the coast at Houston-Galveston, as well as along the U.S. and Canadian border at Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. In Port Arthur, his staff watches over the greatest amount of “water miles” of any Gulf Coast VTS.

The VTS team is closely integrated into the local marine community. “We spearhead USCG public outreach and interaction through sponsorship and participation in the Harbor Safety Committee,” Measells said. “We also interact with all local mariners through a public outreach and vessel rider program.”

One way the Coast Guard works with its stakeholders at Port Arthur and other ports is through the Ports and Waterways Safety Assessment process. “We work with our partners to develop and institute policies and procedures that improve safety and efficiency, and inspire dialogue to make our waterways as safe, efficient, and commercially viable as possible,” Paitl said.

“We have a very close working relationship with the Coast Guard and the other stakeholders here,” said Bennett. “We have one of the best – if not the best – advisory committees in the nation. It’s been in existence quite a while. It’s a grassroots organization.”

Port of Port Arthur Executive Director Floyd Gaspard agreed. “The Southeast Texas Waterways Advisory Council – or SETWAC – involves all the stakeholders on the waterway. It’s sponsored by the Coast Guard. VTS is a critical element of what SETWAC is charged with. We meet quarterly to discuss issues, concerns, and problems, including good news and bad news. It’s an open forum. Anyone can bring up something, and they have a whole room full of people who can help.”

Managing a waterway that serves one port is a challenge, but the Sabine-Neches Navigation District assumes the role of the port authority for an entire waterway that serves four ports: Port Arthur, Sabine Pass, Beaumont, and Orange.

“We’re not as well known as Los Angeles, Long Beach, Houston, or New Orleans, but we have more deep-draft tankers coming in our waterway than anywhere else in the U.S.,” said Randy Reese, president of the Sabine-Neches Navigation District.

“VTS and the protection it gives the waterway is very important here,” he said.

Reese said there is a proposed $1 billion project to deepen the channel from the current depth of 40 feet to 48 feet. Today, larger or deeper-draft ships have to partially unload their product before they can transit up the channel. “With the widening of the Panama Canal, a deeper channel here will mean we’ll be able to accept some of those larger ships here.”

As big as the waterway is, Paitl and Measells can see most of the waterway from their office, thanks to the extensive network of cameras that monitor the entire route.

“VTS has brought about a vast improvement in safety,” said Gaspard, a 47-year veteran of working on and around these waters. “There has been a decrease in incidents, and a transparency that didn’t exist before. Now everyone can identify every vessel on the waterway by location. VTS gives us better eyes and ears on all movements at all time.”

Professional mariners are known to be independent. While Paitl said there may be differing ideas of how traffic should move on the waterway from time to time, there’s one thing that all the stakeholders acknowledge. “We always agree on safety,” he said. “They know we’re always watching out for their safety.”

This article first appeared in Coast Guard Outlook 2012 Summer Edition.