NOAA News: US and Cuba Agree to Improve Maritime Navigation Safety
U.S., Cuba agree on efforts to improve maritime navigation safety
Memorandum of Understanding signed in Havana
Contact
Ben Sherman, ben.sherman@noaa.gov; 240-533-0496, 202-253-5256 (cell)
Dawn Forsythe, dawn.forsythe@noaa.gov, 240-429-6125 (cell)
March 21, 2016
Ambassador Jeffrey DeLaurentis, the Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Havana, and Col. Candido Alfredo Regalado Gomez, Chief of Cuba’s National Office of Hydrography and Geodesy (ONHG), have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to improve maritime navigation safety and related areas of mutual interest to protect lives and property at sea.
`NOAA has a strong interest in both improving navigational safety and in protecting the marine environment in the heavily travelled and vibrant waters between our two countries in the Straits of Florida,’ said Russell Callender, Ph.D., assistant NOAA administrator for the National Ocean Service. `We welcome this agreement and the progress it represents.’
`Improved navigation services are important for commercial mariners and individual boaters alike,’ said Ambassador DeLaurentis, `and it is particularly important as authorized trade and authorized travel increase between the two countries.’
NOAA Chart – 11013_Public
In addition to updating data on domestic charts like the NOAA chart above, the U.S. and Cuba agreed to work together on a new international paper chart, INT Chart 4149, which will cover south Florida, the Bahamas, and north Cuba. The memorandum of understanding between the two countries was signed last Friday in Havana. (Credit: NOAA)
The MOU calls for cooperation in the areas of hydrography, oceanography, geodesy and related services of mutual interest. One of the major focuses will be to improve maritime navigation safety including efforts to ensure the accuracy of both electronic and paper charts, eliminate charting overlaps and fill in gaps in navigational chart coverage.
`This MOU will allow us to fill gaps in essential navigational data, working on a practical level with our Cuban counterparts,’ said Kathryn Ries, deputy director of NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey. `The U.S. works with hydrographic offices of all nations that have waters adjacent to the United States and our territories, and this agreement improves the exchange of charting information with Cuba as well.’
In February 2015, less than two months after President Obama announced the United States’ new approach toward Cuba, NOAA and ONHG, through a set of reciprocal exchanges, launched what became a year-long effort to formulate the technical exchange that is a normal course of affairs between most of the other maritime nations of the world. Both agencies are working on plans for monitoring and forecasting tides and currents for ports and improving positioning networks among other related scientific and technical activities. The MOU is the first step in what is expected to be a long-term collaboration between the two countries.
In addition to aligning each country’s navigational charts, NOAA and ONHG are sharing data for the creation of a new international chart (known in mariner’s parlance as `INT chart’) 4149, which will cover south Florida, the Bahamas, and north Cuba. NOAA plans to publish the new chart this year.
NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey, originally formed by President Thomas Jefferson in 1807, maintains the nation’s nautical charts, surveys the coastal seafloor, responds to national maritime emergencies, and searches for underwater obstructions and wreckage.
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U.S., Cuba agree on efforts to improve maritime navigation safety
posted: 4/18/2016
In addition to updating data on domestic charts like the NOAA chart above, the U.S. and Cuba agreed to work together on a new international paper chart which will cover south Florida, the Bahamas and northern Cuba. (NOAA)
Ambassador Jeffrey DeLaurentis, the chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Havana, and Col. Candido Alfredo Regalado Gomez, chief of Cuba’s National Office of Hydrography and Geodesy (ONHG), have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to improve maritime navigation safety and related areas of mutual interest to protect lives and property at sea.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced the signing, which calls for cooperation in the areas of hydrography, oceanography, geodesy and related services of mutual interest, on March 21.
A major focus will be to improve maritime navigation safety including efforts to ensure the accuracy of both electronic and paper charts, eliminate charting overlaps and fill in gaps in navigational chart coverage.
NOAA and ONHG are working on plans for monitoring and forecasting tides and currents for ports and improving positioning networks among related scientific and technical activities.
The MOU is the first step in what is expected to be long-term collaboration between the two countries.
– See more at: http://www.thelog.com/SNW/Article/U-S—Cuba-agree-on-efforts-to-improve-maritime-navigation-safety#sthash.8a7tdNPz.dpuf
Comments from Cruisers (8)
Larry,
Having attended a few of the meetings hosted by the FWC on this topic, I did miss the sarcasm, simply because these are the asserted behaviors ascribed to cruisers in Florida by both land-based detractors and law enforcement. While most folks from out of state are miffed at their inability to do anything they please anywhere they please, many folks here in Florida with waterfront interests view them as either sheep for shearing or vermin for eradication. The only boats welcome here come with mega as a modifier or have center consoles and are billed for a slip or mooring. And when cruisers pull the cruisers won’t spend their money here if they are mistreated, people just snigger…what money? Cruisers spend far less in a year than Disney makes in a day. Cruisers in Florida who anchor are viewed as waterborne equivalent of street people and a few go out of their way to dress and act the part.
So I found Tim’s remark to be reinforcing of a stereotype rather than sarcasm.
Just one guy’s view. We no longer ply the AICW to any greater degree than necessary to get to the Abacos.
Keep up the good work.
Chris
Let me add a constructive comment. A sail boat is generally easier to get off from being aground that a power boat. Set two anchors out–one in the direction of the deeper water, the second forward of the beam. Take the spinnaker halyard to a bowline in the anchor which is set forward of the beam. Use the halyard winch to heel the boat over, as you take strain on the forward anchor. It does not take much heeling effect to reduce the draft enough to let the boat work free. This assumes that you have at least two spare anchors. Every cruising boat should have at least 4 anchors–Two bow, a stern and a kedge.
Sorry for your plight, but it is because of boaters like yourself that Florida has taken the position it has. I don’t want to be mean and offend anyone, but there are several things this boater did wrong that landed him in this position. While he may not have been treated well by the locals, he had a duty as a boater to exercise due care and be responsible. The emergency happened and he was correct in his position at first, but when he left his vessel, even thou exhausted at trying to correct it’s peril, it became abandoned. This situation could have been avoided if the captain had a towing service policy which would of allowed him to get out of his situation in a timely manner. True, this cost money, but we all know that the freedom to boat is not necessarily free. Now the captain will have to pay after the fact to recover his vessel. In Florida’s eyes, this might very well have become another vessel that was abandoned. I have long been a proponent that Florida should require abandoned vessel insurance on all vessels registered in Florida. My sympathy is with this captain, however his actions led to this ultimate outcome.
And yet the authorities let obviously abandoned/derelict boats sit for months in places where they are a problem and even other boaters want them removed!! Go figure…
Unfortunately you abandoned your boat. I wonder what the interaction was between you and the owner of the docks? You had inadequate anchoring gear.
Your only recourse is to negotiate a settlement with the person who towed your boat. If you feel that it was unjust, then your have the option of legal action. Most likely you will loose.
You are fortunate that the person who towed your boat did not claim salvage.
Yes, I feel for your plight. But you should have never abandoned your boat. Part of being a responsible boater, cruiser is taking proper precautions to avoid such a situation. If it occurs, then you have to have the insurance and resources to handle the situation. What if you had caused $10,000 in damage to the property owners dock? What if you sunk his $ one million dollar boat?
Unfortunately the cruising life is not free. It has responsibilities.
I for one am less than sympathetic. Mr. Vause embodies precisely what is wrong with some boaters who become lightning rods for homeowners and ruining boating for everyone else. He trespassed on two properties, denying those owners the use and enjoyment of their private property. It matters not how little time it might have been or why. His obligation is to get his boat off their properties. But, after three days aground he decides to go ashore for rest. If I were the property owner, I would not assume for a second that Mr. Vause had not abandoned the boat.
Owning a boat requires great responsibility and not insignificantly, a financial one as well. If you cannot afford to get your boat towed or if you lack the requisite seamanship skills to kedge off someone else’s property, you have no business being on the water. You have no right to infringe on others.
Folks with lower incomes are certainly entitled to own boats if they can afford it. Unemployed and on welfare? I’d say that is prima facie evidence that you cannot. You are out boating on working taxpayers’ dime? And you want sympathy? Unbelievable.
I applaud the Government officers who will finally address this epidemic of those, who in the exercise of their boating freedom give little thought to the rights of anyone except themselves.
We took our first trip to Florida this winter, from St. Mary’s River to Key West and disgusted by the shear number of abandoned and derelict boats. There is nothing else like it on the east coast. While I don’t condone the overreaction of influential property owners, I can understand their outrage and it is people like Mr. Vause who do nothing to ameliorate it.
James, so sorry to hear of your plight. Yes, I believe you are correct. Boating in Florida waters is becoming a nightmare. I’m a boating snowbird and used to travel south in my boat in the winter to south Florida. Over the years. It became apparent I wasn’t wanted there. They wanted my money but not me and my boat. So I don’t go there anymore. There are other places to boat in winter. With Cuba opening up to boating, I think that will be a nice place to visit. Apparently, the state government doesn’t want us in Florida either, from what I’m reading. My solution would be to try to boat elsewhere. I have a good trawler that suits me fine. If I decide to sell it and buy another one, you can bet I will do neither in Florida! If they don’t want us there, then let’s spend our money elsewhere. Let’s buy and sell our boats where we use them. A boycott of Florida boat dealers and brokers might do more than anything else to address the boating situation in Florida. Good luck with the powers that be in Florida, but don’t expect too much compassion. They seem to be on a quest to stop boating in the state.
Respectfully,
Jerry
steal your boat back under cover of darkness and move it to another state. deny any knowledge of the matter and then sell the boat and get another out of state