Budget Boost for Charts - Boat U.S. Reports

Boat/US Magazine, Jan, 2002

Members of Congress are hearing loud and clear about the critical need for accurate, modem nautical charts and have answered the call with record increases in funding for charts in FY 02.

The Mapping and Charting program of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the federal agency responsible for collecting and certifying all hydrographic data for U.S. waters, will get $37 million this year, about $4 million more than the Bush Administration requested.

The extra funding will mainly pay for speeding up the conversion to an electronic charting database, upon which all U.S. charts, government or private, are based. Electronic charts received no additional funding last year and the conversion has slowed down as a result. Also in the 2002 budget is a record $27 million to address the backlog in resurveying the most critical U.S. waters. In 2001, the backlog was down to about 17 years to cover all of the waterways that most need surveying, much of it the coast of Alaska and major U.S. shipping ports.

In addition, NOAA will be able to fund an additional hydrographic survey ship which should also speed up work on the backlog.

Boat U.S. is part of a coalition of maritime interests that has stepped up lobbying for improvements to NOAA charts. New concerns about port security and the need for accurate data about our own harbors in light of potential terrorist targets have also helped.