Canada CHS update in the Marine GeoGarage

As our public viewer is not yet available
(currently under construction, upgrading to Google Maps API v3 as v2 is officially no more supported),
this info is primarily intended to our B2B customers which use our nautical charts layers
in their own webmapping applications through our GeoGarage API. 

CHS raster charts coverage

56 charts have been updated (October 31, 2014)

• 1230 PLANS PÉNINSULE DE LA GASPÉSIE
• 1310 PORT DE MONTRÉAL
• 1315 QUÉBEC À/TO DONNACONA
• 1316 PORT DE QUÉBEC
• 1430 LAC SAINT-LOUIS
• 1438 GRINDSTONE ISLAND TO/À CARLETON ISLAND
• 1509A RIVIÈRES DES PRAIRIES
• 1509B RIVIÈRES DES PRAIRIES
• 1510A LAC DES DEUX MONTAGNES
• 1510B LAC DES DEUX MONTAGNES
• 2055 FRENCHMAN'S BAY
• 2110 LONG POINT BAY
• 2120 NIAGARA RIVER TO/À LONG POINT
• 2250 BRUCE MINES TO/À SUGAR ISLAND
• 2260 SARNIA TO/À BAYFIELD
• 2283A OWEN SOUND TO/À GIANTS TOMB ISLAND
• 2283B OWEN SOUND TO/À GIANTS TOMB ISLAND
• 2291 POINT CLARK TO/À SOUTHAMPTON
• 2312 NIPIGON BAY AND APPROACHES / ET LES APPROCHES
• 3002 QUEEN CHARLOTTE SOUND TO / À DIXON ENTRANCE
• 3440 RACE ROCKS TO/À D'ARCY ISLAND
• 3461 JUAN DE FUCA STRAIT EASTERN PORTION/PARTIE EST
• 3462 JUAN DE FUCA STRAIT TO/À STRAIT OF GEORGIA
• 3724 CAAMANO SOUND AND APPROACHES / ET LES APPROCHES
• 3726 LAREDO SOUND AND APPROACHES
• 3737 LAREDO CHANNEL - INCLUDING / Y COMPRIS LAREDO INLET AND / ET SURF INLET
• 3744 QUEEN CHARLOTTE SOUND
• 3800 DIXON ENTRANCE
• 3902 HECATE STRAIT
• 3938 QUEENS SOUND TO/À SEAFORTH CHANNEL
• 3939 FISHER CHANNEL TO/À SEAFORTH CHANNEL AND/ET DEAN CHANNEL
• 3941 CHANNELS/CHENAUX VICINITY OF / PROXIMITÉ DE MILBANK SOUND
• 3986 BROWNING ENTRANCE
• 4003 CAPE BRETON TO / À CAPE COD
• 4011 APPROACHES TO/APPROCHES À BAY OF FUNDY/BAIE DE FUNDY
• 4012 YARMOUTH TO/À HALIFAX
• 4023 NORTHUMBERLAND STRAIT / DÉTROIT DE NORTHUMBERLAND
• 4124 LETETE PASSAGE LETANG HARBOUR AND/ET BLACKS HARBOUR
• 4230 LITTLE HOPE ISLAND TO/À CAPE ST MARYS
• 4233 CAPE CANSO TO / À COUNTRY ISLAND
• 4243 TUSKET ISLANDS TO\À CAPE ST MARYS
• 4278 GREAT BRAS D'OR AND / ET ST PATRICKS CHANNEL
• 4340 GRAND MANAN
• 4406 TRYON SHOALS TO/À CAPE EGMONT
• 4420 MURRAY HARBOUR
• 4447 POMQUET AND TRACADIE HARBOURS / HAVRES DE POMQUET ET TRACADIE
• 4449 CHÉTICAMP HARBOUR
• 4498 PUGWASH HARBOUR AND APPROACHES / ET LES APPROACHES
• 4514 ST. ANTHONY BIGHT
• 4641 PORT AUX BASQUES AND APPROACHES / ET LES APPROCHES
• 4663 COW HEAD TO\À POINTE RICHE
• 4679 HAWKES BAY \ PORT SAUNDERS\ BACK ARM
• 4905 CAPE TORMENTINE À/TO WEST POINT
• 4909 BUCTOUCHE HARBOUR
• 4920 PLANS BAIE DES CHALEURS/ CHALEUR BAY CÔTE SUD/ SOUTH SHORE
• 4956 CAP-AUX-MEULES
• 5135 APPROACHES TO APPROCHES À HAMILTON INLET
• 5140 SOUTH GREEN ISLAND TO / À TICORALAK ISLAND
• 7750 APPROACHES TO/APPROCHES À CAMBRIDGE BAY

So 693 charts (1677 including sub-charts) are available in the Canada CHS layer. (see coverage)

Note : don't forget to visit 'Notices to Mariners' published monthly and available from the Canadian Coast Guard both online or through a free hardcopy subscription service.
This essential publication provides the latest information on changes to the aids to navigation system, as well as updates from CHS regarding CHS charts and publications.
See also written Notices to Shipping and Navarea warnings : NOTSHIP

Russia and China blamed for blocking Antarctic marine reserve

From Mongabay

Another year, another failed attempt to protect a significant chunk of the Ross Sea, which sits off the coast of Antarctica.
According to observers, efforts to create the world's biggest marine protected area to date were shot down by Russia and China during a meeting in Hobart, Tasmania of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR).
The protected area can only be established by a unanimous vote of the CCAMLR's 24 members and the EU.

"Since 1959, Antarctica has been recognized as a special place for peace and science.
It is regrettable that CCAMLR, faced with objections from China and Russia, cannot live up to that promise," said Andrea Kavanagh with Pew Charitable Trusts.
"Another year of inaction means another year that these near-pristine waters and their remarkable biodiversity are open to the threat of industrial fishing."

NGA nautical charts for Antarctica with the Marine GeoGarage

Some observers theorized that geopolitical tensions over Ukraine were to blame for the proposal's failure this year and not the merits of the project itself.
The Ross Sea has been dubbed the "last ocean" due to its relatively untouched conditions.
Its waters are home to penguins, whales, seals, and marine birds, including about half of the world's killer whales.
However, fishing has been ongoing in the sea for Antarctic toothfish (Dissostichus mawsoni) since the 1990s.
These fisheries have proven controversial with many scientists and conservationists, given that almost nothing is known about the species except that it's a slow-growing top predator—capable of reaching 300 pounds—and is often described as the shark of Antarctica.

The fish is often sold as Chilean sea bass and is one of the world's most expensive, making it largely available only to wealthier customers.
At the same time, fishermen are exposed to hugely dangerous conditions and often paid little.

 Ross Sea : protecting an ecological treasure (NOAA)

In total the Ross Sea covers 3.6 million square kilometers (1.9 square miles).
The current proposal would protect 1.34 million square kilometers (517,000 square miles)—about 37 percent of the total.
The proposal would ban fishing from most of the protected waters, but allow scientific fishing in certain areas.
It would also have a fifty year ban on fossil fuels and a forty year ban on mining.
The Ross Sea protected proposal stems from the U.S. and New Zealand, the latter is already fishing in the remote waters.

Coulman Island in the Ross Sea.

Photo by: Michael Van Woert/NOAA.

This is the fourth time the proposal has failed, even as countries have significantly shrunk the size of the protected area and loosened regulations.
The Ross Sea wasn't the only loser at the meeting.
A second proposal for a series four marine protected areas along the East Antarctic coast was also killed.
These marine reserves would have covered nearly a million square kilometers (386,000 square miles).
The region is also home to an Antarctic krill fishery.
Although krill are the base of the marine food chain, these tiny crustaceans are fished for Omega-3 supplements and fish food.
The one bright spot in the meeting, according to Kavanagh, was further restriction put on the krill industry to better protect penguins.

"We are pleased that CCAMLR took positive steps to keep some krill fishing away from nesting habitats of penguins, but disappointed that politics trumped the advice from the Scientific Committee to increase observer coverage on all fishing vessels," said Kavanagh.

Currently, observers—who independently monitor fisheries' catches and practices—are only found on half of the vessels used by krill fisheries.

Links :

• Phys : Australia confident of Antarctic marine reserve in 2015
• South Ross Sea Region map (USGS) / Linz

The 17 areas of Britain where whales, dolphins and sharks need help

From The Telegraph by Sarah Knapton

Whales, dolphins and sharks need protection from boats and over-fishing at 17 areas off the British coast, a new report suggests.

For the first time, the strips of water where large marine life, known as ‘megafauna’, gather to feed, breed and raise their young, have been identified by wildlife experts.
The sites range from the north east coast of England to Anglesey in Wales and the Irish Sea.
The Wildlife Trusts is calling for the areas to be awarded special protection because they are "acutely vulnerable" to pollution, commercial fishing and other human activities.

Joan Edwards, the Wildlife Trusts' head of living seas, said: "There's an urgent need to create protected areas at sea for our ocean giants and ensure a network of sites to safeguard these species for generations to come.
"The UK has made huge advances in marine conservation in recent years but there is still a significant job to do. Our marine megafauna - whales, dolphins, porpoises and basking sharks - are still under threat.
"Many are suffering from the impacts, whether direct or indirect, increased boat traffic, marine developments and the more persistent effects of pollution."

 Basking Sharks - Hebrides: Islands on the Edge

The UK's waters are home to 29 species of whale, dolphin, porpoise and the world's second largest shark, the basking shark.

Along with harbour porpoises and common and bottlenose dolphins, species including humpback whales, killer whales and sperm whales are seen in the UK's waters.

The Government is creating "marine protected areas" to secure the future of habitats and wildlife on the seabed, but the trusts are concerned that there are no protected areas for dolphins, whales and sharks in England and only one in Wales.
They are calling for the series of "hotspots" - highly productive areas which produce plenty of food - to be protected especially for whales, basking sharks and dolphins, to secure the "missing link" in marine conservation in English and Welsh waters.

The trusts propose creating new marine protected areas, extending the boundaries of ones that are already proposed, adding protection of dolphin, whale and shark species and undertaking more research to establish the importance of sites.
They suggest “designating areas of the sea which are known hotspots, we can provide safe havens for these species and some impacts can be limited or removed altogether".
The proposals include creating a new marine protected area in the south west part of Lyme Bay, which is an important foraging area for white-beaked dolphins as well as hosting important numbers of harbour porpoises.

They also include creating a protected area for common dolphins in the North of Celtic Deep, off the Welsh coast. The food-rich area is a critical habitat for the common dolphin, which gathers in large numbers in the summer to feed and calve, the trusts said.
Areas in Cardigan Bay, off the Northumberland coast and off the southern tip of the Cornish coast are all among the hotspots that the Wildlife Trusts want to see protected for dolphins, whales and basking sharks.

The Wildlife Trusts is made up of the 47 individual Wildlife Trusts covering the whole of the UK and the Isle of Man and Alderney.

Links :

• BBC : Sea giants need urgent protection / Sea life needs protecting at Welsh sites, experts warn

Science’s favorite deep-sea explorer gets high-tech upgrades

 It’s the only deep-diving research submersible in the United States, and nearly 50 years after its first expedition it’s getting an upgrade.

Take an exclusive tour of the Alvin submarine, and see how the updated vessel is continuing to push the boundaries of deep-water exploration

From Wired by Jeffrey Marlow

After 50 years of cutting-edge seafloor exploration, the Alvin submersible—renegade deep-sea explorer for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute—just got a long-deserved makeover.
Alvin is the United States’ only deep-diving manned submersible used for science, so its upgrades will have a serious impact on the discoveries we can pull off in the deep.

 For two generations, the human-occupied submersible Alvin has helped scientists expand human knowledge of the ocean and inspired countless to learn more about the ocean.

This year, Alvin turns 50, and we want you to help us celebrate.

To make a tricked-out sub, engineers first had to build a new personnel sphere, the titanium orb that protects the sub’s three passengers—one pilot, two scientists—from the crushing pressure of the water above them.

Metalworkers cast two perfect hemispheres, 6 feet in diameter, and welded them together with an electron beam.

Structural tests showed the sphere was safe to dive up to 6,500 meters below the surface, which opens up 98 percent of the seafloor to exploration.

Archive (1965) : new submarine to observe oceans depths

After the sphere was finished, engineers built a new chasse around it, outfitted with improved tech for the scientists inside.

Five HD cameras—up from three on Alvin’s previous iteration—record the scene for later analysis. Those cameras can see further, too, thanks to the high-intensity LEDs that ring the sub.

And more and larger viewports provide overlapping fields of view, which allow scientists and pilots to coordinate sample collection with the sub’s robotic arms.

Those arms, by the way, got an upgrade too: They have a new shoulder joint that extends their reach to grab awkwardly placed samples.

Once the team has snagged the right rocks, sediment, and animal specimens, they’re dumped on the bulked-up sampling platform, which can carry more than twice Alvin’s previous load to the surface.

The technological upgrades on the U.S. Navy-owned Alvin submersible allow the deep-sea diving vessel to go to new depths.

Reaching 98 percent of the sea floor, the submarine is able to explore complex hydrothermal vents and ecosystems.

After a full day’s work exploring the ocean’s depths, the new Alvin rises to the surface, anticipating a pick-up from its mother ship, the research vessel Atlantis.
With the new brighter hue on the sub’s carbon fiber sail—the same international orange used on the Golden Gate Bridge—the ship has no trouble spotting it in the water.
A faster recovery means a quicker route to the shipboard cold room, where precious samples are preserved.
On shore, a giddy group of scientists will be waiting to start their analysis.

Links :

• GeoGarage blog :  Ocean science giant Alvin set for upgrade / Probing the ocean's undiscovered depths / Unprecedented impact of Deepwater Horizon on deep ocean revealed / The last dive? Funding for human expeditions in the ocean may have run aground
• NPR : Alvin, the little submarine that could

Nautical charts to be revised to reflect unprecedented changes caused by tsunami

 Colorful lines on a nautical chart aboard the Tenyo hydrographic survey vessel show trajectories surveyed by its dinghy.

Black lines indicate trajectories yet to be surveyed.

(Yosuke Fukudome)

From TheAsahiShimbun by Yuri Imamura

About an hour into a Japan Coast Guard hydrographic survey mission, a crew member on lookout abruptly shouted for the dinghy to stop.
The starboard was about to touch a 200-meter-long rope floating about 1 meter beneath the sea surface near Onagawa Port, Miyagi Prefecture.
The rope was being used for an underwater operation to tie a work vessel to a buoy.
The previous day, the crew discovered about 10 caissons, the gigantic concrete boxes that constitute the foundations of a breakwater, in the area.
The boxes, measuring 20 meters per side and each weighing several thousand tons, were dumped there by the tsunami three and a half years ago.
“Even those hefty caissons were swept up by the tsunami,” said Tsuyoshi Takaesu, the chief hydrographic surveyor of the main Tenyo survey vessel.
“You will never know what you will encounter.”

A dinghy of the Tenyo, a hydrographic survey vessel of the Japan Coast Guard,

navigates Onagawa Bay. (Yosuke Fukudome)

The Japan Coast Guard continues to survey waters off the tsunami-affected Tohoku coast to revise nautical charts that take into account disaster-related rubble on the seabed, drifting objects and changing water depths that could pose a threat to safe navigation.

Map of 2011 Tohoku(Sendai) earthquake observed tsunami heights in Japan.

The mission primarily covers 24 ports and surrounding waters along the Pacific coast extending from Aomori Prefecture to Ibaraki Prefecture and is scheduled to be completed by the end of fiscal 2015.
The 2011 disaster caused changes to the seafloor on an unprecedented scale, Coast Guard officials said.
And the mission so far has been full of surprises and potential dangers.
“A big mess would follow if (the rope) were to be caught in the dinghy’s propeller,” Takaesu said in a strained voice about the rope.

 This image, obtained during the Tenyo’s seabed survey immediately following the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, is believed to represent a submerged vehicle.

(Provided by the Second Regional Coast Guard Headquarters)

The dinghy’s crew approached carefully and used a pole to get the rope out of the way.
The compact dinghy, which is only 2 meters wide and 10 meters long, was deployed from the 430-ton Tenyo survey vessel on Sept. 17 to survey the shallow interior of the port.
The Tenyo, with a crew of 23 and Koichi Nishimura as captain, was surveying all parts of the harbor off the town of Onagawa for the first time in 32 years.
Takaesu, 50, has served in the post since immediately after the Great East Japan Earthquake triggered the tsunami on March 11, 2011.

The tsunami changed water depths significantly in nautical charts in at least one location for every harbor, according to officials of the Second Regional Coast Guard Headquarters, which oversees the coasts of the six Tohoku prefectures.

The Changing Face of Onagawa (March 11, 2011 - March 11, 2013)

Nautical charts show water depths, coastal topography, locations of shoals and lighthouses, ocean flows and tide currents to ensure safe navigation of seafaring vessels and port use.
The new nautical charts will be used to set limits on the size of vessels and their cargo to ensure that seabed objects will not hit the ship bottoms.

Takaesu recalled the time he was in Kamaishi Port in Iwate Prefecture in May, when he came across a spot with a depth of only 1 to 2 meters, despite surrounding depths of 36 meters.
When he hastily brought out measurement equipment, he saw something in the water that looked like Tokyo Tower.
“What’s this?” he thought, and returned to the same spot.
He realized the object was a mess of entangled fishing nets.
“It gave me a shudder to realize that an object like that was still moving along,” Takaesu said. “Rebuilding efforts have proceeded visibly on land, but they probably still have a long way to go in the ocean.”

 This image is believed to represent a submerged vessel.

(Provided by the Second Regional Coast Guard Headquarters)

The dinghy can accommodate 10, but only five or six usually go on board because of the small interior.
A monitoring chamber in the center of the dinghy contains four computer monitors.
A multi-beam sonar on the bottom measures the seafloor topography and produces graphical output.
The constant movement of the dinghy can induce sea sickness.
“I have yet to get accustomed,” said Kenta Kobayashi, a 21-year-old rookie who was assigned to do hydrographic surveys in spring.

 JP79 Ishinomaki Wan (1:50,000) published 2014-09
JHA/Japan Coast Guard

The dinghy shuttled back and forth at a speed of 8-9 kph within a radius of about 100 meters near a tsunami breakwater under construction 1 km off Onagawa Port.
It shifted its trajectory slightly to one side each time, just as you do when you wipe a floor with a cloth.
“We are passing by the caissons,” Kobayashi said as the dinghy entered the waters where the objects had been spotted the previous day.
When the depths became shallower, the computer screens shifted from deep blue to orange.

Koji Saito, a 25-year-old assistant hydrographic surveyor, said he was working for the Second Regional Coast Guard Headquarters in Shiogama, Miyagi Prefecture, when the quake and tsunami struck.
He said he found a swept-up passenger car in Hachinohe Port, Aomori Prefecture.
“Whenever I am on a survey mission, I can’t help but look for a car that may contain missing people,” Saito said.

W65 Hachinohe Ko (1:12,000) published 2014-03

JHA/Japan Coast Guard

Tsunami breakwaters were destroyed in the ports of Ofunato and Kamaishi in Iwate Prefecture, where water depths lost a maximum of 10 meters.
But in a July 2011 survey, the water was 15 meters deeper than indicated in the nautical chart at one location in Hachinohe Port, Aomori Prefecture.
It is believed that the tsunami induced a big eddy that scooped out part of the seafloor.

 W1093 Ofunato Ko (1:10,000) published 2014-07

JHA/Japan Coast Guard

Coast Guard officials said local governments that administer ports are in charge of surveying any small changes, such as those resulting from wharf construction.
The Coast Guard uses those survey results to modify its nautical charts.

But the 2011 disaster created so many changes that the Coast Guard took the unusual step of conducting comprehensive surveys and republishing nautical charts for all 24 ports affected.
It takes workers two to eight weeks to survey a single harbor.
They work in three shifts around the clock.
Data analysis requires an additional six months to one year.
“There is a pressing need for port maintenance to help rebuilding efforts,” said Hirokazu Mori, the 47-year-old chief of the hydrographic surveys division in the Second Regional Coast Guard Headquarters.
“We hope to produce highly reliable nautical charts.”

 Japan’s first nautical chart was created in 1872 by the navy and covered Kamaishi Port.

Vessels of a certain dimension are legally obligated to equip themselves with nautical charts on a permanent basis.

Links :

• Hydro : Hydrography After Huge Earthquakes (2011)