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NOAA's Office of Coast Survey provides a guide to the most common features found on navigational charts. Do you know where to find the following information on your chart?
> Dangers to
navigation: wrecks,
rocks and
obstructions
> Aids to navigation:
buoys, lights and
beacons
> Hydrography: water
depths and
channels
> Topography:
shorelines,
landmarks and
berthing facilities
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On February 10, 1807 Thomas Jefferson established the Survey of the Coast. In 1970, the agency was reorganized and is now known as NOAA.
 
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Laser Technology to Help Improve Safety at Sea
NOAA is now using laser technology to chart topographical features such as rocks, small islands and islets. The use of these lasers will help surveyors provide more precise information, which could result in even further improvements to the accuracy of navigational charts. Use of the topographic lasers also increases the efficiency of data gathering and improves safety conditions for hydrographers as they conduct their surveys.
Until recently, hydrographic ships' launches were used to locate water features. To get a reasonable location, the launch would carefully approach the rock or other feature, and "kiss" it with its bow. They would then add the five feet from the boat's GPS unit to the feature, and mark it on their field hydrographic sheets for use by cartographers.
Topographic lasers promise to deliver a safer experience and more precise results in much the same way that sonar is used to find the seafloor. The laser head produces sixteen laser beams, which reflect off the target object and are received back by the laser head. A computer then uses this data (along with other information) to determine the height and location of the object at hand.
Read more about the new laser technology
here.
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United States Coast Guard Remains Busy on the Great Lakes
Just because it is winter on the Great Lakes doesn't mean that the United States Coast Guard (USCG) doesn't have plenty to do! In addition to regular maintenance, search and rescue operations, and icebreaking duties, the USCG performs an annual aids-to-navigation mission called Operation Fall Retrieve.
During Operation Fall Retrieve, the USCG manages the retrieval and replacement of more than 1,200 navigation aids located throughout the Great Lakes. Due to decreased traffic in the winter months, lighted and unlighted buoys and beacons are taken out of operation and replaced with smaller, lighter and more buoyant buoys. Known as wintermarks, or icehulls, these navigational aids are designed to sit underneath the ice when the lakes freeze but still remain in place.
To accomplish Operation Fall Retrieve, the USCG employs multiple cutters, Aids to Navigation (ATON) teams, and small boat stations with ATON duties. The U.S. Coast Guard also works with the Lamplighters (civilian employees who manage the inland waters of Northern Minnesota), Canadian Coast Guard crews, and the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation.
Read more about Operation Fall Retrieve here.
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