Saturday, October 13, 2012

Trophée Jules Verne 2011-12 : the movie

A video for sharing this beautiful story with everyone

 From Sail-World

In the 2011 Jules Verne Trophy, the 14 sailors on-board Maxi trimaran Banque Populaire V just burst into the history of offshore racing by becoming the fastest men around the globe with crew, after 45 days 13 hours 42 minutes and 53 seconds of sailing.
Loïck Peyron and his crew improved the reference time of the Jules Verne Trophy held by Groupama 3 since March 2010 by two days eighteen hours one minute and fifty-nine seconds.

Departed on November 22nd at 09:31:42 Paris time (08:31:42 GMT), after having crossed the imaginary line between Ouessant (Finistère-France) and Lizard Point (southern tip of England), the Maxi Banque Populaire V crossed the finish line of the Jules Verne Trophy at 23:14:35 Paris time (22:14:35 GMT) Friday 6th of January 2012.
She undertook this sailing around the world in 45 days 13 hours 42 minutes 53 seconds days at an average speed of 26.51 knots, covering a total distance of 29 002 miles.

Launched in August 2008 in Lorient (Morbihan-France),the giant trimaran holding the colours of Banque Populaire has also established several referenced time on various partials officially listed by the WSSRC for her first world tour:
  • Equator / Equator record in 32 days, 11 hours, 51 minutes and 30 seconds
  • Indian Ocean crossing record (Cape Agulhas / South of Tasmania) in 8 days 7 hours 22 minutes and 15 seconds
Under the leadership of the skipper Loïck Peyron, Thierry Chabagny, Florent Chastel, Thierry Duprey du Vorsent, Kevin Escoffier, Emmanuel Le Borgne, Frédéric Le Peutrec, Jean-Baptiste Le Vaillant, Ronan Lucas, Pierre-Yves Moreau, Yvan Ravussin, Xavier Revil, Brian Thompson, Juan Vila and onshore router Marcel van Triest, are the new holders of the Jules Verne Trophy.

Loïck Peyron, skipper of the Maxi Banque Populaire V: The feeling from the guys onboard: Emotion and Happiness ! We have filled a good part of the contract!
Our memories are full of wonderful images: the departure, icebergs, albatrosses, the Kerguelen Islands...
When you sail around the world in 45 days, you see many things.
The only one we did not get is Cape Horn but this frustration is quickly forgotten with the record we now have in hands.
We are very proud!

Jules Verne Trophy:
  • Start date and time: November 22nd 2011 at 09:31:42 Paris time (08:31:42 GMT)
  • Arrival date and time at Ushant: January 6th 2012 at 23:14:35 Paris time (22:14:35 GMT)
  • Distance: 29 002 miles Average speed : 26.51 knots
  • New reference time on the Jules Verne Trophy* : 45 days 13 hours 42 minutes 53 seconds
  • Time difference with Groupama 3’s record in 2010: 2 days 18 hours 1 minute and 59 seconds

Friday, October 12, 2012

West African fishing communities drive off 'pirate' fishing trawlers


From TheGuardian

International vessels operating illegally in protected waters have stayed away after being filmed and identified by local fishers

A group of 23 impoverished west African fishing communities has driven off a fleet of illegal, unreported and unregulated "pirate" trawlers by filming and reporting them when they are found in their waters.

In the 18 months since the London-based Environment Justice Foundation (EJF) raised the £50,000 needed to buy and equip a small seven-metre community surveillance boat for villages in the Sherbro river area of Sierra Leone, local fishers have filmed and identified 10 international trawlers working illegally in their protected waters and have made 252 separate reports of illegal fishing.

Between 1 January 2010 and 31 July 2012, EJF’s community surveillance project in southern Sierra Leone received 252 reports of pirate fishing by industrial vessels in inshore areas.
EJF’s local staff filmed and photographed 10 different vessels operating illegally, and transmitted the evidence to the Sierra Leone government and European authorities.
Nine out of 10 of the vessels are accredited to export their catches to the EU

Images of the pirate ships and their GPS positions are analysed to establish the identity of the vessels and the evidence is passed on to European Union (EU) and African governments, fishing ports and other communities.
Nine of the 10 ships identified by the Sierra Leonean communities were found to have licences to export their catches to Europe.

The effect of communities policing their own waters has been spectacular, says EJF in a new report on pirate fishing in west Africa.
More than US$500,000 in fines has been collected from the vessel owners, $6m worth of fish has been seized and none of the vessels has been reported in Sierra Leone's inshore exclusion zone for six months.

In addition, it says, Panama and Korea, whose vessels have been repeatedly identified fishing illegally in Sierra Leonean waters, have agreed to act on the information provided by the communities.

"A clampdown in one area can lead to overfishing elsewhere. So we see the need for a number of these boats along the coast. Fishermen are the best eyes and ears when it comes to illegal fishing," said Andy Hickman, an EJF campaigner.

 Using the evidence gathered in coastal communities, the Sierra Leone government has begun a crackdown on pirate fishing.
Ocean 3 (pictured) was fined US $90,000 and had its catch confiscated (valued at US $60,000).
However, the vessel escaped, still owing US $20,000 in fines to the authorities

The west African coast has been plagued for 20 years with massive international trawlers that are able to scoop up hundreds of tonnes of fish a day and export their illegal catch to Europe, at the expense of local fishermen who use 8m open pirogues (small flat-bottomed boats).
The foreign trawlers, that are meant to stay outside the 12-mile limit, come in much closer at night because few west African countries have the money to monitor or police their waters.

"Along with the economic losses, pirate fishing in the region severely compromises the food security and livelihoods of coastal communities. In Sierra Leone, fish represents nearly two-thirds of the total animal protein consumed in the country," says the report.

Anger at the activities of pirate fishing vessels is now boiling over.
According to the report, countries like Liberia, Senegal, Mauritania, Guinea and Ghana have the highest levels of illegal fishing in the world with nearly one-third of the total catch being taken illegally.


The lack of a Global Record of fishing vessels and a Unique Vessel Identifier (UVI) enables unscrupulous operators to change their vessels’ names or to 'flag hop' to avoid detection and sanctions.
This makes it difficult for coastal countries to ascertain whether vessels have histories of IUU fishing and whether they are managed by legitimate operators.
For example, Kummyeong 2 (pictured), documented by EJF as fishing illegally in Sierra Leone in December 2011, was identified three months later in Guinea operating under a new identity.
EJF travelled to Guinea in March 2012 where they identified Kummyeong 2 anchored at sea, one mile from the port of Conakry.
The vessel had erased its name and painted a new name, Conosu, on its hull.
Sierra Leone now considers it a fugitive, and efforts are ongoing to make sure it returns to face a fine for its illegal activities.
EJF is campaigning for the vessel to be banned from exporting its catches to the EU

Earlier this year Senegal cancelled the licences of 29 foreign fishing trawlers, demanding that they offload their catches in the capital Dakar before leaving its territorial waters.


Senegal's catch of a lifetime

The move followed threats of direct action by the country's 52,000 small-scale inshore fishermen against the owners of foreign trawlers.

Artisanal fishing pirogues in Senegal

EJF is calling on the EU to tighten up its regulations, blacklist companies that have been shown to have repeatedly fished illegally and prevent illegally caught fish from entering the European seafood market.

"The EU is the world's largest importer of fish. It has a crucial responsibility to combat illegal fishing around the world, particularly in vulnerable countries where fish is a vital source of food security, employment and income," said Hickman.

Links :
  • AllAfrica : West Africa: More Fish in the Sea?
  • TheGuardian : Seven steps to prevent the collapse of west Africa's fishing grounds
  • Greenpeace : Report on illegal licensing of super trawlers in Senegalese waters

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Surfonomics quantifies the worth of waves


TEDxMonterey - Jason Scorse - The Ocean's True Market Value

From WashingtonPost

A handful of surf intellectuals are letting go of lofty environmentalist rhetoric and fighting economics with economics.

In 2002, a surfer named Chad Nelsen enlisted an economist at Duke University to help put a price tag on a popular surfing spot on Puerto Rico’s northwest coast.
Nelsen’s idea was novel: to prove that the waves breaking on the beach constituted a multimillion-dollar asset and persuade the local town to take pains to preserve it.

Real estate developers were after another multimillion-dollar asset: the views from the beach, which would be the selling point for three high-rise condominiums they planned to build.

Surfers and environmentalists feared that the construction at Rincon, the village in Puerto Rico, would change the flow of sediment around the beach and bury a reef that created the surf break.
Nelsen sought to show that without the reef, there would be no waves, no surfers and, ultimately, a big drop in tourism dollars.

“We found that people were buying second houses there just for the surfing,” said Linwood Pendleton, the Duke economist who assisted Nelsen and is a chief economist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
“It was contributing literally millions of dollars a year to the local economy.”

Rincon and its world-class wave break, discovered by surfers in the late 1960s, embodies a cycle that’s as regular as the tides: Surfers trek to remote reaches of the globe in search of the perfect wave. They discover prized beaches.
Word gets out.
Tourists pile in.
Developers seize land and opportunity.
Construction alters the wave break.
The surf loses its edge.

Surf advocates have long argued that Mother Nature is priceless, invoking geological and hydrological mechanics that distinguish the character and appeal of the waves.
In a new strategy, Nelsen and a handful of other surf intellectuals are letting go of lofty environmentalist rhetoric and fighting economics with economics.

Taken from the north end of Zicatela Beach in Puerto Escondido, Mexico (Pete Orelup)

“Those of us who really love the ocean have an instinct when we see beautiful places like this to think that they’re priceless and to think that the commodification of nature, and putting price tags on everything, is the root cause of nature’s destruction. . . . I think that’s actually counterproductive,” Jason Scorse, director of the Center for the Blue Economy, said in a TEDx talk in April.
Scorse is the author of the book “What Environmentalists Need to Know About Economics” (2010).
“When nature is undervalued, we make bad decisions.”Rincon was a rare victory for surfers.
The international campaign to protect the wave break, led by the Surf­rider Foundation, an advocacy group, blocked the condo proposal and persuaded lawmakers to designate Tres Palmas, the name of the break, as the heart of Puerto Rico’s first marine reserve.

And it helped launch the science of “surf­onomics.”

Landes 2007 (photo Arnaud Darrigade)

Intrinsic value in a wave

In March, Nelsen, 42, completed a doctorate of environmental science at UCLA, where he studied the economics of surfing.
Surf­onomics is an offshoot of natural resource economics that seeks to quantify the worth of waves, both in terms of their value to surfers and businesses and their non-market value — or how much people would be willing to pay not to lose them.

“The assumption is often that surfing is worth zero dollars,” said Nelsen, environmental director for the Surf­rider Foundation.
“It’s taken for granted. It’s not perceived as being a viable and important source of economics, particularly with decision makers in coastal zone management that we’re talking to all the time.”

To prove there is intrinsic value in a wave, Nelsen started at the beginning.
A report he produced last August tabulates the number of surfers in the country and how much money they shell out for the privilege of riding the waves.
After surveying more than 5,000 surfers, Nelsen concluded that about 3.3 million people in the country surf 108 times a year, drive an average of 10 miles per session and contribute at least $2 billion to the U.S. economy annually.

“The report is to demonstrate that, hey, there’s a lot of surfers in the U.S. They go to the beach a lot, and they spend a lot of money in these communities,” Nelsen said.
“Therefore, you should take their interests seriously.”

In part, the survey is an effort to shake the stereotype of the shaggy stoner who lives out of a van and doesn’t contribute to society.
Nelsen calls that misconception “the Spicoli virus” in reference to Sean Penn’s iconic surfer-slacker character from the 1982 movie “Fast Times at Ridge­mont High.”
The median surfer these days is 34 and pulls in more than $75,000 a year, according to Nelsen’s study.

“Even 10 years ago, the posture was one of trying to dismiss the arguments of these ‘crazy surfers,’ ” said Michael Walther, a coastal engineer in Florida whose research persuaded officials in Monmouth County, N.J., to rethink a beach renourishment plan that would have buried a surf break at Sandy Hook in 2001.

photo ?

Building proposals for a new harbor in Los Angeles, a cruise ship terminal in Australia, a factory in Mexico or a jetty in France don’t account for potential damage to surf breaks that bolster nearby communities with tourism dollars.
When surfers have spoken up, Nelsen said, their arguments have tended to be passionate but abstract and lacking a concrete link between the building, the break and the local economy.
Meanwhile, the argument of real estate developers is more easily couched in economic terms: job creation, revenue and growth.

A simple case study: A world-class surf break at Madeira, an island off the coast of Portugal, suffered a damaging blow when the government installed a seawall in the 1990s.
The idea was to defend cliffs against erosion to prepare the area for tourism infrastructure.
U.S.-based Save The Waves Coalition objected, saying the wall would make surfing more dangerous. The seawall was built, and surfers stopped visiting en masse.
Save The Waves Founder Will Henry thinks that they lost the fight because they weren’t properly equipped.
“If you talk in dollars, that’s a language the government speaks,” Henry said.
“We didn’t have any real data at the time to say, ‘This asset is going to be worth X amount of dollars over the next 10 years.’ It just didn’t exist.”

Save The Waves has since produced two studies evaluating the economic value of surf breaks, in partnership with academics at Stanford University, the University of Oregon and the University of Hawaii.
Mavericks, an epicenter of big-wave surfing in Half Moon Bay, Calif., is worth $23.9 million annually in a report produced in 2010.
A wave at Mundaka, off the coast of southern Spain, brings in about $4.5 million to the local economy each year, according to a 2007 study.

Economists calculate the value of a surf­able wave by tabulating visiting expenses of surfers and surf spectators.
Some of the indicators they watch: distance traveled, visits per year, time taken off work, length of stay, drive time, gas money, parking fees, food breaks, gear rentals.
The theory is that such figures represent how much money a person is willing to part with for the experience.
At Mavericks, for example, economists calculated that more than 420,000 people, not just surfers, visit each year to watch the waves and spend an average of $56.70 per visit.

Afternoon offshores creating some perfection at Kirra (Queensland) (photo ?)

‘Waves are our Yosemite Valleys’

The practice of protecting natural resources for public use is as old as Yellow­stone, the country’s first national park.
It was established in 1872 “for the benefit and enjoyment of the people,” according to the statute signed by President Ulysses S. Grant.
The field of natural resource economics is a natural outgrowth of the same idea.
It began as a means of quantifying value in mining, fishing and timber industries, and it provides a method of assessing dollar values for travel and activities around places where people recreate.
The methodology gives economists tools to gauge how much people are willing to pay to go skiing or whale-watching or to hike the Appalachian Trail.

“These waves are our Yosemite Valleys,” Nelsen said. He believes they deserve the same considerations and protections. “We think of these as national treasures.”

The same way national parks set use restrictions on select areas, surfers are beginning to induct unique wave breaks into what they call World Surfing Reserves.
The designation was created in 2009 by Save The Waves and modeled on an Australian organization called National Surfing Reserves that has had success coordinating protection plans with government officials for about a dozen surf breaks.
What is often lacking is the financial element — key to swaying decision makers, said Neil Lazarow, an economist who evaluated surfing on Australia’s famed Gold Coast.

Sachuest Beach, this bay faces SW (Newport), catching all the sea breeze windswell. (photo ?)

The movement to apply economics to environmentalism got a boost last year from the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
In a report issued to the White House, the council recommends investing in research surrounding “environmental capital,” or non-consumptive natural resources that people will pay to enjoy.
The idea that self-sustaining resources such as waves don’t attract dollars simply because you can’t count people moving through a turnstile is outdated thinking, said Pendleton, the Duke economist.

“We’ve tended to focus on big industrial uses of the outdoors while forgetting about these much more sustainable uses of the outdoors, especially recreation,” Pendleton said.
“And we do it at our own economic peril.”

Economic studies of activities like surfing are critical when economists are calculating damage assessments in the wake of environmental disasters, such as the Deep­water Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

“Unfortunately, we’ve been performing a lot of crisis-driven studies where we are figuring things out after the fact,” said Charles Col­gan, chief economist for the National Ocean Economics Program, a project of the Monterey Institute of International Studies.
“We don’t want to wait for the next oil spill or hurricane to figure out what’s going on. It’s a costly way to do things.”

As industries such as commercial fishing have taken a plunge, tourism has come to account for a larger chunk of the ocean economy.
Commercial fishing produced slightly less than $5.7 billion in 2009 while coastal tourism and recreation accounted for more than $61 billion that year, according to NOAA reports.

Colgan thinks the rise in coastal tourism is partly because of the economic downturn driving people to cheaper housing inland.
Because it is too expensive to live where they can surf, people are traveling farther to do so.

“As growth is shifting inland and people are traveling to the coast from further inland, the idea of surfing as just a cultural issue on the coast needs to be shifted,” Colgan said.
“It’s not about that one stretch of beach. It affects a larger geographical area.”

Frozen perfection in New York.Long Island. (photo Matt Clark)

A risky proposition

Surf economists admit that surf­onomics is a risky proposition.
The few reports documenting the value of waves have not, so far, been challenged or scrutinized by developers
 But what if, for example, a wave worth $24 million annually is pitted against a new hotel that would bring in $30 million a year, Surfers Against Sewage, another advocacy group, says in a 2010 report on ocean resources.
“Are the developers then in a position to ‘buy’ that wave from the surfers?”

“That’s everyone’s fear, especially when you start stacking up recreation against offshore oil,” Pendleton said.
“How can we ever compete?”

Scorse, the marine policy advocate, is in the final stages of a study that he said proves that surfing contributes potentially hundreds of millions of dollars — not in tourism, but in property tax revenue.
He said his research, which he expects to complete this year, shows that houses within walking distance of surf spots in Santa Cruz, Calif., are worth far more than coastal homes farther from great wave breaks.

Nelsen, for his part, isn’t worried about the implications.

“We’re not arguing that the world is one big cost-benefit analysis,” he said.
“You could probably make more money on Yosemite than you make today if you filled it with condos. But no one is arguing that we should. Surfonomics is just one measure of the value of these resources. It’s not the only measure.”

Links :
  • Surfrider : “Surfonomics” above the fold

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Aurora Borealis seen from Isle of Man

The Northern Lights were photographed by Dave Thornley at Ballaugh beach

From BBC

The Aurora Borealis has been photographed by a stargazer on the west coast of the Isle of Man.

Dave Thornley, from Peel, photographed the Northern Lights from Ballaugh beach on Monday.
The Aurora Borealis are best seen from the Northern latitudes like Norway, Alaska, Iceland and northern Scotland.

Mr Thornley said: "To see something this intense so far south is extremely rare. This is the first time I have managed to get pictures like this."
He added: "I was just setting up my camera on the mount when I saw a glow coming from the north so I swung the camera around and took some pictures.
"It was quite exciting, I just wasn't expecting anything this intense so I made some frantic phone calls to my friend, Harvey Wood and he came out and got some pictures because we have both been trying to photograph the Northern Lights for ages."

Mr Thornley and Mr Wood are regular night photographers and Ballaugh beach is a favourite spot because of the lack of artificial light.

The pair have been trying to capture the Aurora Borealis for the past year.

 The Northern Lights were last seen from the Isle of Man in May

"I knew there had been a geomagnetic storm but we were only planning to photograph the Milky Way," Mr Thornley said.
"I just remember seeing big fingers of colours and light right above our heads at about 45 degrees from the horizon and from other reports from around the UK, it seems it lasted throughout the night."

 Martina Garrdiner also took this photo of the Aurora Borealis over Ballintoy Harbour, County Antrim, Northern Ireland early this morning.

The Northern Lights happen when incoming solar radiation hits the earth's upper atmosphere and excites atoms to a new energy state, emitting colours which is energy in the form of light.

 Pete Irvine is from Ballintoy in Northern Ireland where he took this picture of the harbour. He says that the white lights are from star trails.

Howard Parkin, chairman of the Isle of Man Astronomical Society, said: "The Aurora Borealis can be seen from the Isle of Man about two or three times a year but it is rare for all the conditions to be right.
"I think the last time they were seen from the island was in May but when they are viewed from this latitude it usually looks like a green glow - to get all the colours is spectacular, rare and wonderful."

When the waves of light are predominantly red, it indicates a high level of "oxygen excitation" compared to low levels in the green layers. South Erradale, Gairloch, Scotland.
Photo: Mark Appleton.

Links
  • BBC : Aurora Borealis: Your pictures

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Watch the water: Great Lakes' currents visualized


You can't normally see water currents or the wind.
Now you can: A computer code used to visualize wind has been adapted by researchers to show surface currents of the Great Lakes.

The code was originally developed to make a map of the wind by Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg, artists/technologists who lead Google's "Big Picture" visualization research group in Cambridge, Mass., according to their website.

 A screenshot, taken on the afternoon of Oct. 3, 2012, 
of a new map that visualizes the surface currents on the Great Lakes.
Credit: NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory
 But researchers at the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Michigan saw the stunning wind map and figured it could be applied to surface currents of the Great Lakes, which are largely driven by wind.
They were right.
And, luckily for them, Viégas and Wattenberg agreed to share their code.

The result? A stunning map of surface currents on the Great Lakes, as shown in this screenshot of the map on the laboratory's website from Oct. 3.

The code uses a computer model to visualize wind patterns, said David Schwab, a researcher at the laboratory who's in charge of the map.
The model is based on measurements of wind speed, air temperature and other variables at weather stations and buoys around the Great Lakes, Schwab told OurAmazingPlanet.
It's updated four times per day.

 General Water currents of the Great Lakes (Environment Canada)

"I think a lot of people never realized how variable the currents are in the lakes," Schwab said.
He thinks the map will be useful for recreational boaters, fishermen and the shipping industry, as well as for generally increasing people's knowledge of the Great Lakes, he said.

Faster currents are shown as thicker white lines, and the speed of the current can be determined by zooming in on individual lines.

Lake Michigan Underwater Currents that was done in the late 1800's via bottle paper courses...

Monday, October 8, 2012

UK & misc., a new update in the Marine GeoGarage

Today 967 charts (1854 including sub-charts) from UKHO
are available in the 'UK & misc.' chart layer
regrouping charts for different countries :
  1. UK
  2. Argentina
  3. Belgium
  4. Netherlands
  5. Croatia
  6. Oman
  7. Portugal
  8. Spain
  9. Iceland
  10. South Africa
  11. Malta

642 charts for UK
(711 Mauritius, 3492 Approaches to Port Sudan
withdrawn from previous update)

24 charts for Argentina :

  • 226    International Chart Series, Antarctica - South Shetlands Islands, Deception Island.
  • 227    Church Point to Cape Longing including James Ross Island
  • 531    Plans on the Coast of Argentina
  • 552    Plans on the Coast of Argentina
  • 557    Mar del Plata to Comodoro Rivadavia
  • 1302    Cabo Guardian to Punta Nava
  • 1331    Argentina, Approaches to Bahia Blanca
  • 1332    Isla de los Estados and Estrecho de le Maire
  • 1751    Puerto de Buenos Aires
  • 1982B    Rio Parana - Rosario to Parana
  • 2505    Approaches to the Falkland Islands
  • 2517    North-Western Approaches to the Falkland Islands
  • 2519    South-Western Approaches to the Falkland Islands
  • 3065    Punta Piedras to Quequen
  • 3066    Quequen to Rio Negro
  • 3067    Rio Negro to Isla Leones
  • 3106    Isla Leones to Pto San Julian
  • 3213    Plans in Graham Land
  • 3560    Gerlache Strait  Northern Part
  • 3566    Gerlache Strait  Southern Part
  • 3755    Bahia Blanca
  • 4063    Bellingshausen Sea to Valdivia
  • 4200    Rio de la Plata to Cabo de Hornos
  • 4207    Falkland Islands to Cabo Corrientes and Northeast Georgia Rise
27 charts for Belgium & Nederlands :

  • 99 Entrances to Rivers in Guyana and Suriname
  • 110 Westkapelle to Stellendam and Maasvlakte
  • 112 Terschellinger Gronden to Harlingen
  • 120 Westerschelde - Vlissingen to Baalhoek and Gent - Terneuzen Canal
  • 122 Approaches to Europoort and Hoek van Holland
  • 124 Noordzeekanaal including Ijmuiden, Zaandam and Amsterdam
  • 125 North Sea Netherlands - Approaches to Scheveningen and Ijmuiden
  • 126 North Sea, Netherlands, Approaches to Den Helder
  • 128 Westerschelde, Valkenisse to Wintam
  • 207 Hoek Van Holland to Vlaardingen
  • 208 Rotterdam, Nieuwe Maas and Oude Maas
  • 209 Krimpen a/d Lek to Moerdijk
  • 266 North Sea Offshore Charts Sheet 11
  • 572 Essequibo River to Corentyn River
  • 702 Nederlandse Antillen, Aruba and Curacao
  • 1187 Outer Silver Pit
  • 1408 North Sea, Harwich and Rotterdam to Cromer and Terschelling.
  • 1412 Caribbean Sea - Nederlandse Antillen, Ports in Aruba and Curacao
  • 1414 Bonaire
  • 1503 Outer Dowsing to Smiths Knoll including Indefatigable Banks.
  • 1504 Cromer to Orford Ness
  • 1546 Zeegat van Texel and Den Helder Roads
  • 1630 West Hinder and Outer Gabbard to Vlissingen and Scheveningen
  • 1631 DW Routes to Ijmuiden and Texel
  • 1632 DW Routes and Friesland Junction to Vlieland
  • 1874 North Sea, Westerschelde, Oostende to Westkapelle
  • 2047 Approaches to Anguilla

14 charts for Croatia :

  • 201 Rt Kamenjak to Novigrad
  • 202 Kvarner, Kvarneric and Velebitski Kanal
  • 269 Ploce and Split with Adjacent Harbours, Channels and Anchorages
  • 515 Zadar to Luka Mali Losinj
  • 683 Bar, Dubrovnik and Approaches and Peljeski Kanal
  • 1574 Otok Glavat to Ploce and Makarska
  • 1580 Otocic Veliki Skolj to Otocic Glavat
  • 1582 Approaches to Bar and Boka Kotorska
  • 1996 Ports in Rijecki Zaljev
  • 2711 Rogoznica to Zadar
  • 2712 Otok Susac to Split
  • 2719 Rt Marlera to Senj including Approaches to Rijeka
  • 2773 Sibenik, Pasmanski Kanal, Luka Telascica, Sedmovrace, Rijeka Krka
  • 2774 Otok Vis to Sibenik
 6 charts for Oman :

  • 2851 Masirah to the Strait of Hormuz
  • 2854 Northern approaches to Masirah
  • 3171 Southern Approaches to the Strait of Hormuz
  • 3409 Plans in Iran, Oman and the United Arab Emirates
  • 3511 Wudam and Approaches
  • 3518 Ports and Anchorages on the North East Coast of Oman


124 charts for Spain & Portugal :

  • 73 Puerto de Huelva and Approaches
  • 83 Ports on the South Coast of Portugal
  • 85 Spain - south west coast, Rio Guadalquivir
  • 86 Bahia de Cadiz
  • 87 Cabo Finisterre to the Strait of Gibraltar
  • 88 Cadiz
  • 89 Cabo de Sao Vicente to Faro
  • 91 Cabo de Sao Vicente to the Strait of Gibraltar
  • 93 Cabo de Santa Maria to Cabo Trafalgar
  • 142 Strait of Gibraltar
  • 144 Mediterranean Sea, Gibraltar
  • 307 Angola, Cabeca da Cobra to Cabo Ledo
  • 308 Angola, Cabo Ledo to Lobito
  • 309 Lobito to Ponta Grossa
  • 312 Luanda to Baia dos Tigres
  • 366 Arquipelago de Cabo Verde
  • 369 Plans in the Arquipelago de Cabo Verde
  • 469 Alicante
  • 473 Approaches to Alicante
  • 518 Spain East Coast, Approaches to Valencia
  • 562 Mediterranean Sea, Spain - East Coast Valencia
  • 580 Al Hoceima, Melilla and Port Nador with Approaches
  • 659 Angola, Port of Soyo and Approache
  • 690 Cabo Delgado to Mikindani Bay
  • 886 Estrecho de la Bocayna and Approaches to Arrecife
  • 1094 Rias de Ferrol, Ares, Betanzos and La Coruna
  • 1096 Ribadeo
  • 1110 La Coruna and Approaches
  • 1111 Punta de la Estaca de Bares to Cabo Finisterre
  • 1113 Harbours on the North-West Coast of Spain
  • 1117 Puerto de Ferrol
  • 1118 Ria de Ferrol
  • 1122 Ports on the North Coast of Spain
  • 1133 Ports on the Western Part of the North Coast of Spain
  • 1142 Ria de Aviles
  • 1145 Spain - North Coast, Santander
  • 1150 Ports on the North Coast of Spain
  • 1153 Approaches to Gijon
  • 1154 Spain, north coast, Gijon
  • 1157 Pasaia (Pasajes) and Approaches
  • 1172 Puertos de Bermeo and Mundaka
  • 1173 Spain - North Coast, Bilbao
  • 1174 Approaches to Bilbao
  • 1180 Barcelona
  • 1189 Approaches to Cartagena
  • 1193 Spain - east coast, Tarragona
  • 1194 Cartagena
  • 1196 Approaches to Barcelona
  • 1197 Plans on the West Coast of Africa
  • 1215 Plans on the Coast of Angola
  • 1216 Baia dos Tigres
  • 1290 Cabo de San Lorenzo to Cabo Ortegal
  • 1291 Santona to Gijon
  • 1448 Gibraltar Bay
  • 1453 Gandia
  • 1455 Algeciras
  • 1460 Sagunto
  • 1514 Spain - East Coast, Castellon
  • 1515 Ports on the East Coast of Spain
  • 1589 Almeria
  • 1595 Ilhas do Principe, de Sao Tome and Isla Pagalu
  • 1684 Ilha da Madeira, Manchico and Canical
  • 1685 Nisis Venetico to Nisos Spetsai including the Channels between Akra Maleas and Kriti
  • 1689 Ports in the Arquipelago da Madeira
  • 1701 Cabo de San Antonio to Vilanova I la Geltru including Islas de Ibiza and Formentera
  • 1703 Mallorca and Menorca
  • 1704 Punta de la Bana to Islas Medas
  • 1724 Canal do Geba and Bissau
  • 1726 Approaches to Canal do Geba and Rio Cacheu
  • 1727 Bolama and Approaches
  • 1730 Spain - West Coast, Ria de Vigo
  • 1731 Vigo
  • 1732 Spain - West Coast, Ria de Pontevedra
  • 1733 Spain - West Coast, Marin and Pontevedra
  • 1734 Approaches to Ria de Arousa
  • 1740 Livingston Island, Bond Point to Brunow Bay including Juan Carlos 1 Base and Half Moon Island
  • 1755 Plans in Ria de Arousa
  • 1756 Ria de Muros
  • 1762 Vilagarcia de Arosa
  • 1764 Ria de Arousa
  • 1831 Arquipelago da Madeira
  • 1847 Santa Cruz de Tenerife
  • 1850 Approaches to Malaga
  • 1851 Malaga
  • 1854 Motril and Adra
  • 1856 Approaches to Puerto de La Luz (Las Palmas)
  • 1858 Approaches to Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Puerto de San Sebastian de la Gomera, Santa Cruz de la Palma and Approaches
  • 1869 Gran Canaria to Hierro
  • 1870 Lanzarote to Gran Canaria
  • 1895 Ilha de Sao Miguel
  • 1950 Arquipelago dos Acores
  • 1956 Arquipelago dos Acores Central Group
  • 1957 Harbours in the Arquipelago Dos Acores (Central Group)
  • 1959 Flores,Corvo and Santa Maria with Banco Das Formigas
  • 2742 Cueta
  • 2761 Menorca
  • 2762 Menorca, Mahon
  • 2831 Punta Salinas to Cabo de Formentor including Canal de Menorca
  • 2832 Punta Salinas to Punta Beca including Isla de Cabrera
  • 2834 Ibiza and Formentera
  • 2932 Cabo de Sao Sebastiao to Beira
  • 2934 Africa - east coast, Mozambique, Beira to Rio Zambeze
  • 2935 Quelimane to Ilha Epidendron
  • 3034 Approaches to Palma
  • 3035 Palma
  • 3220 Entrance to Rio Tejo including Baia de Cascais
  • 3221 Lisboa, Paco de Arcos to Terreiro do Trigo
  • 3222 Lisboa, Alcantara to Canal do Montijo
  • 3224 Approaches to Sines
  • 3227 Aveiro and Approaches
  • 3228 Approaches to Figueira da Foz
  • 3257 Viana do Castelo and Approaches
  • 3258 Approaches to Leixoes and Barra do Rio Douro
  • 3259 Approaches to Setubal
  • 3260 Carraca to Ilha do Cavalo
  • 3448 Plans in Angola
  • 3578 Eastern Approaches to the Strait of Gibraltar
  • 3633 Islas Sisargas to Montedor
  • 3634 Montedor to Cabo Mondego
  • 3635 Cabo Mondego to Cabo Espichel
  • 3636 Cabo Espichel to Cabo de Sao Vicente
  • 3764 Cabo Torinana to Punta Carreiro
  • 4114 Arquipelago dos Acores to Flemish Cap
  • 4115 Arquipelago dos Acores to the Arquipelago de Cabo Verde
  • Ilha de Madeira, Ponta Gorda de Sao Lourenco including the Port of Funchal


14 charts for Iceland :

  • 2733 Dyrholaey to Snaefellsjokull
  • 2734 Approaches to Reykjavik
  • 2735 Iceland - South West Coast, Reykjavik
  • 2897 Iceland
  • 2898 Vestfirdir
  • 2899 Iceland, Noth Coast, Horn to Rauoinupur
  • 2900 Iceland, North East Coast, Rauoinupur to Glettinganes
  • 2901 Iceland, East Coast, Glettinganes to Stokksnes
  • 2902 Stokksnes to Dyrholaey
  • 2955 Iceland, North Coast, Akureyri
  • 2956 Iceland, North Coast, Eyjafjordur
  • 2937 Hlada to Glettinganes
  • 2938 Reydarfjordur
  • 4112 North Atlantic Ocean, Iceland to Greenland   NEW


47 charts for South Africa :

  • 578 Cape Columbine to Cape Seal
  • 632 Hollandsbird Island to Cape Columbine
  • 643 Durban Harbour
  • 1236 Saldanha Bay
  • 1769 Islands and Anchorages in the South Atlantic Ocean
  • 1806 Baia dos Tigres to Conception Bay
  • 1846 Table Bay Docks and Approaches
  • 1922 RSA - Simon's Bay
  • 2078 Port Nolloth to Island Point
  • 2086 East London to Port S Johns
  • 2087 Port St John's to Durban
  • 2088 Durban to Cape Vidal
  • 2095 Cape St Blaize to Port S. John's
  • 3793 Shixini Point to Port S Johns
  • 3794 Port S Johns to Port Shepstone
  • 3795 Port Shepstone to Cooper Light
  • 3797 Green Point to Tongaat Bluff
  • 3859 Cape Cross to Conception Bay
  • 3860 Mutzel Bay to Spencer Bay
  • 3861 Namibia, Approaches to Luderitz
  • 3869 Hottentot Point to Chamais Bay
  • 3870 Chamais Bay to Port Nolloth
  • 4132 Kunene River to Sand Table Hill
  • 4133 Sand Table Hill to Cape Cross
  • 4136 Harbours on the West Coasts of Namibia and South Africa
  • 4141 Island Point to Cape Deseada
  • 4142 Saldanha Bay Harbour
  • 4145 Approaches to Saldanha Bay
  • 4146 Cape Columbine to Table Bay
  • 4148 Approaches to Table Bay
  • 4150 Republic of South Africa, South West Coast, Table Bay to Valsbaai
  • 4151 Cape Deseada to Table Bay
  • 4152 Republic of South Africa, South West Coast, Table Bay to Cape Agulhas
  • 4153 Republic of South Africa, South Coast, Cape Agulhas to Cape St. Blaize
  • 4154 Mossel Bay
  • 4155 Cape St Blaize to Cape St Francis
  • 4156 South Africa, Cape St Francis to Great Fish Point
  • 4157 South Africa, Approaches to Port Elizabeth
  • 4158 Republic of South Africa - South Coast, Plans in Algoa Bay.
  • 4159 Great Fish Point to Mbashe Point
  • 4160 Ngqura Harbour
  • 4162 Approaches to East London
  • 4170 Approaches to Durban
  • 4172 Tugela River to Ponta do Ouro
  • 4173 Approaches to Richards Bay
  • 4174 Richards Bay Harbour
  • 4205 Agulhas Plateau to Discovery Seamounts


    5 charts for Malta :

    • 36 Marsaxlokk
    • 177 Valletta Harbours
    • 211 Plans in the Maltese Islands
    • 2537 Ghawdex (Gozo), Kemmuna (Comino) and the Northern Part of Malta
    • 2538 Malta

    64 international charts from NGA 
    (3775 Ra's Abu `Ali to Ra's as Saffaniyah withdrawn from previous update)

    • 3 Chagos Archipelago
    • 82 Outer Approaches to Port Sudan
    • 100 Raas Caseyr to Suqutra
    • 255 Eastern Approaches to Jamaica
    • 256 Western Approaches to Jamaica
    • 260 Pedro Bank to the South Coast of Jamaica
    • 333 Offshore Installations in the Gulf of Suez
    • 334 North Atlantic Ocean, Bermuda
    • 386 Yadua Island to Yaqaga Island
    • 390 Bahamas, Grand Bahama Island, Approaches to Freeport
    • 398 Grand Bahama Island, Freeport Roads, Freeport Harbour
    • 457 Portland Bight
    • 462 The Cayman Islands
    • 486 Jamaica and the Pedro Bank
    • 501 South East Approaches to Trinidad
    • 666 Port Mombasa including Port Kilindini and Port Reitz
    • 700 Maiana to Marakei
    • 766 Ellice Islands
    • 868 Eastern and Western Approaches to The Narrows including Murray's Anchorage
    • 920 Chagos Archipelago, Diego Garcia
    • 928 Sulu Archipelago
    • 959 Colson Point to Belize City including Lighthouse Reef and Turneffe Islands
    • 1043 Saint Lucia to Grenada and Barbados
    • 1225 Gulf of Campeche
    • 1265 Approaches to Shatt Al 'Arab or Arvand Rud, Khawr Al Amaya and Khawr Al Kafka
    • 1450 Turks and Caicos Islands, Turks Island Passage and Mouchoir Passage
    • 1638 Plans in Northern Vanuatu
    • 2006 West Indies, Virgin Islands, Anegada to Saint Thomas
    • 2009 Sheet 2 From 23 deg 40 min North Latitude to Old Bahama Channel
    • 2065 Northern Antigua
    • 2133 Approaches to Suez Bay (Bahr el Qulzum)
    • 2373 Bahr el Qulzum (Suez Bay) to Ras Sheratib
    • 2374 Ra's Sharatib to Juzur Ashrafi
    • 2441 Jazireh-ye Tonb-e Bozorg to Jazireh-ye Forur
    • 2658 Outer Approaches to Mina` al Jeddah (Jiddah)
    • 2837 Strait of Hormuz to Qatar
    • 2847 Qatar to Shatt al `Arab
    • 2887 Dubai (Dubayy) and Jazireh-Ye Qeshm to Jazirat Halul
    • 2888 Jask to Dubayy and Jazireh-ye Qeshm
    • 2889 Dubayy to Jabal Az Zannah and Jazirat Das
    • 3043 Red Sea, Ports on the coast of Egypt.
    • 3102 Takoradi and Sekondi Bays
    • 3172 Strait of Hormuz
    • 3174 Western Approaches to the Strait of Hormuz
    • 3175 Jazirat al Hamra' to Dubai (Dubayy) and Jazireh-ye Sirri
    • 3179 UAE and Qatar, Jazirat Das to Ar Ru' Ays
    • 3310 Africa - east coast, Mafia Island to Pemba Island
    • 3361 Wasin Island to Malindi
    • 3432 Saltpond to Tema
    • 3493 Red Sea - Sudan, Bashayer Oil Terminals and Approaches.
    • 3519 Southern Approaches to Masirah
    • 3520 Khawr Kalba and Dawhat Diba to Gahha Shoal
    • 3522 Approaches to Masqat and Mina' al Fahl
    • 3530 Approaches to Berbera
    • 3709 Gulf of Oman, United Arab Emirates, Port of Fujairah (Fujayrah) and Offshore Terminals.
    • 3723 Gulf of Oman, United Arab Emirates, Approaches to Khawr Fakkan and Fujairah (Fujayrah).
    • 3785 Mina' Raysut to Al Masirah
    • 3907 Bahama Islands and Hispaniola, Passages between Mayaguana Island and Turks and Caicos Islands.
    • 3908 Passages between Turks and Caicos Islands and Dominican Republic
    • 3910 Little Bahama Bank including North West Providence Channel
    • 3912 Bahamas, North East Providence Channel and Tongue of the Ocean
    • 3913 Bahamas, Crooked Island Passage and Exuma Sound
    • 3914 Turks and Caicos Islands and Bahamas, Caicos Passage and Mayaguana Passage
    • 3951 Sir Bani Yas to Khawr al `Udayd



    Don't forget to visit the UKHO Notices to Mariners : NTM for 2012

    So today, for a cost of 9.9 € / month ('Premium Charts' subscription), you can have access to 2588 additional updated charts (4332 including sub-charts) coming from 3 international Hydrographic Services (UKHO, CHS, AHS and France).

What the sea gives me


"The Sea, once it casts it spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever." Jacques-Yves Cousteau

From Kickstarter             

Misfit pictures welcomes all ocean lovers to join us in the creation of our next film WHAT THE SEA GIVES ME, a stunningly beautiful portrayal of the seemingly inexplicable relationship between ourselves and the sea.


Our film highlights individuals whose lives and destinies are defined by their connection to the ocean. Whether it be the extremely dangerous researching of Great White sharks, diving to depths never before reached, surfing death-defying mountains of water or humbly feeding your family from the day's catch - all of us are invisibly linked to the ocean in one form or another.

If you are still reading, I guess you know exactly what I am talking about.
But here's a little more.
WHAT THE SEA GIVES ME is a feature length documentary comprised of intimate and candid interviews with some of the ocean's most extraordinary ambassadors.
We will give you an honest and personal look through the eyes of those who thrive under the most extreme water conditions, those ensuring the proper care of the oceans for future generations and those who simply derive a sense of pure joy from the sea.

Proposed interviews include Great White shark researcher Brett McBride, artist Matt Beard, photographer Chris Burkard, bodysurfer Angie Oschmann, conservationist Jean-Michelle Cousteau, free-diver Herbert Nitsch, oceanographer Walter Munk and many others.
In addition to riveting personal interviews, we are filming in spectacular above-and-below-the-water locations around the world (South Africa, Greece, Fiji, Australia, Ireland, New England, California, and Hawaii) to display the natural beauty of the oceans.

The goal of WHAT THE SEA GIVES ME is to raise ocean awareness on a global level while reminding the viewer how closely we are all connected to the sea; and, to introduce you to an unique group of people we find absolutely captivating.

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Sea change: a tidal journey around Britain - interactive

 “... a sense of threat as well as one of miracle attends Marten’s images. The people who fill his beaches at low tide seem often still to be there at high tide, invisibly in their fixed positions, fatally swallowed by metres of sea.”- Robert Macfarlane

From TheGuardian

Photographs of the same locations taken at high and low tide make for a series of fascinating diptychs


Since 2003 photographer Michael Marten has travelled around the British coast to photograph identical views at high and low tide, six or 18 hours apart.
St Cwyfan's, Anglesey: 'At midday, the church looks isolated and austere beneath a grey, rain-threatening sky. Later, the clouds are paler and kinder.'
Photograph: Michael Marten

See how the seascapes in his photographs are dramatically transformed by clicking on the vertical slider in the middle of the image and moving it left or right.







The British landscape photographer Michael Marten is, in his own words, "a student of tides".
In 2003, he spent a day photographing a set of rocks on the coast of Berwickshire and, afterwards, while reviewing his pictures, he realised that he had captured the same view at ebb and flood tide.
He realised, too, that the incoming sea had radically altered the perspective and the atmosphere of that stretch of landscape.

 Hayle river mouth, Cornwall. 18 March 2010.
Low water 12 noon, high water 6pm.

So began the nine-year journey around Britain's coastline that is distilled into the 105 colour images in Sea Change, a body of work that records landscapes defined by these two contrasting moments in time.

Marten's preparation for each set of photographs was painstaking.
He scanned tide-table charts and local coastal maps to find the best locations to set up his 5x4 camera and the exact times when the tide was at its lowest and highest.
"When I take the first picture of a tidal pair," Marten writes in his afterword, "I mark the position of my tripod with sticks and stones or scratch marks on rocks so that I can set up in the same position six hours later or the next day. I place a sheet of tracing paper on the ground glass screen of the 5x4 camera and, under my darkcloth, use a pencil to trace lines that will remain unchanged when the tide comes in or goes out: the horizon, a rock, a harbour wall, or distant headland."
Thus, the second image is meticulously framed exactly like the first.
The end result is a book of intriguing diptychs: some torrential; some busy, then deserted; some so radically different in atmosphere and detail that they seem to be entirely different landscapes.
Put simply, the sea changes everything, not just the land it covers, but the land around and beyond it.

Bedruthan Steps, Cornwall. 25 and 31 August 2007.
High water 4.30pm, low water 2pm

Marten is also a master of tone and colour, and the photographs speak of the elements as much as the sea and the shore.
In Aberffraw on Anglesey, he captures St Cwyfan's church – known locally as "the church in the sea" – at midday at high water on 9 April this year.
It looks isolated and austere beneath a grey, rain-threatening sky, a place not so much of refuge as of pure isolation.
At 5.45pm on the same day, the tide has retreated way beyond the raised stone mound that the church squats on, and the clouds are paler and kinder.
The church looks part of the landscape, the same sandy colour as the sand and pebbles in the foreground. It also looks welcoming.

 Salmon fishery, Solway Firth. 27 and 28 March 2006.
Low water 5.20pm, high water 12 noon

There are diptychs of tidal estuaries, famous beaches, coves, ports and crags that jut into the sea.
There is even a diptych of Crosby, Liverpool, where the artist Antony Gormley's cast-iron men stand submerged in water, then alone on a long, wide expanse of sand.
They look defiant even as the tide rises around them and over them.

As Robert McFarlane notes in his illuminating introductory essay, one of the most powerful aspects of Marten's photographs is "the cognitive dissonance between the serene and the sinister".
As sea levels rise inexorably, these beautifully strange images are ominous too in their evocation of what may come.

Links : 
  • DailyMail : Sea change: Photographer captures the dramatic contrast along Britain's landscape caused by ebb and flow of coastal tide
  • TheGuardian : Ins and outs: Michael Marten photographs the difference the tide makes