Page 30: of Marine News Magazine (July 2021)

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Feature

Navigation

ELECTRONIC

NAVIGATIONAL

CHARTS:

An Update and

Some Issues

By Tom Ewing

U.S. NAVAL INSTITUTE PHOTO ARCHIVE. Used with permission.

n November 2019, the Of? ce of Coast Survey (OCS), And importantly, paper charts will still be available via part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admin- a new NOAA web-based Custom Chart application. Us- istration (NOAA), announced the start of a ? ve-year ers can de? ne scale and paper size and selected position-

I program to “sunset” all raster and paper nautical charts. ing. Notes and other marginalia appear on separate PDF

NOAA has produced electronic navigational charts pages. The app is now available as Version 1 and, even (ENCs) since 1993. In the 2019 notice, NOAA writes better, development is ongoing and two-way: via NOAA’s that “ENC sales increased 425% since 2008, while sales of web page a user can comment on the app’s good points paper charts are now half of 2008 levels.” and ideas for improvement.

For NOAA and mariners, a focus on electronic charts The huge increases in demand for ENCs surely indi- and publications promises many advantages. With a sin- cate support among users. That doesn’t mean, though, that gular focus, NOAA can use its resources more ef? ciently. there are no questions with the sunsetting project. In a

Mariners will get higher quality, more informative charts, heavily regulated industry, one basic concern for mariners eventually building to a library with over 9,000 ENCs. is, yes, NOAA makes the charts, but the U.S. Coast Guard 30 | MN July 2021