NOAA Hydrographic Leadership Delivers Historic Ratification
Dawn Forsythe
NOAA Office of Coast Survey
June 18, 2009 — People have been charting the seas for centuries, primarily for the benefit of navigation. Over the last few decades, modern day charters or hydrographers — many from NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey — have made tremendous advances in the charting process.
NOAA and its colleagues in U.S. defense agencies have joined forces to help advance modern hydrography.
NOAA representatives deliver President Obama’s first instrument of ratification to the Government of Monaco, the depositary for the International Hydrographic Organization. Seated are Capt. Steven Barnum, NOAA, and Franck Biancheri, the Monacos Government Counsellor for External Relations and International Economic and Financial Affairs. Pictured standing from left to right are: NOAA OCS representatives Craig Winn, Capt. John Lowell, Meg Danley and Kathryn Ries; RADM Christopher Andreasen and Peter Doherty from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA); CMDR Brian Connon from the U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office; NOAA contractor and former OCS employee Erich Frey; and Steven Keating from NGA. Photo credit: Craig Winn, NOAA Office of Coast Survey.
Representatives from NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey (OCS) made history in June when they led the U.S. delegation to the 4th Extraordinary International Hydrographic Organization Conference. They had the unusual privilege of hand carrying President Obama’s first signed instrument of ratification to an international gathering. The document, which provides for sweeping organizational changes to IHO’s Convention, will clear the way for broader geographic coverage, better consistency and quality, and easier availability of nautical charts produced around the world.
“Government officials at all levels, mariners on our waters, and environmental managers have a lot to gain from these changes,” explains Capt. Steven Barnum, director of NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey and the U.S. National Hydrographer. “IHO will be better equipped to support standardized navigational products and services. Since many shipping companies are based outside the U.S., it is in our best interest that all navigational information is commonly recognizable and understood.”
Barnum says that common chart standards used worldwide will ultimately increase the safety of navigation in U.S. waters, reducing the risks of casualties and environmental damage to sensitive marine ecosystems.
The U.S. delegation to the IHO, led by Capt. Barnum, included representatives from NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey, the U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. The IHO, formed in 1921, provides for cooperation between the world’s chart makers.
“You can sense an international groundswell moving forward,” said Captain John Lowell, chief of OCS’s Marine Chart Division who was a member of the U.S. delegation. “It’s exciting to be part of a renewed global effort to provide mariners with the products they need, especially as more ships travel between multiple ports in multiple countries.”