This request for you to complete online survey is part of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s efforts to get the public’s input on the future of charting. Pass the questionnaire link along to your boating friends.

Dear NOAA Customer,
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Office of Coast Survey (OCS) wants to know you are satisfied with our products, services and data, and if you have suggestions as to how we can improve them. This information will be used to enhance our abilities to better meet your needs.

The survey has two tracks, one for professional maritime users of our products and data and another for recreational users. Both portions of the survey are built from trends previously gathered from similar surveys conducted by NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey. You will only be asked to fill out one section of the survey; whichever is most pertinent to your interests. Either track should take no more than 10 minutes of your time. Please Click here to complete the online questionnaire.

The data collected from this survey will be analyzed according to the specifications of the Market Research Society’s Code of Conduct, assuring confidentiality to participants. Answers to the questionnaire will only be used for statistical analysis.

When you complete the questionnaire click `SUBMIT’ and wait for the Office of Coast Survey website to be displayed to ensure your responses were received. A company that specializes in research on Charts and other navigation products called Strategy, Research & Action Inc., will receive and analyze the surveys and provide NOAA with statistical results.

Please complete the survey by June 1, 2015.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns regarding this survey or any other aspect of this collection of information, please contact Matthew Kroll (matt.kroll@noaa.gov ), National Ocean Service, 1315 East-West Highway, SSMC3, Room 6350, N/CS5, Silver Spring, Maryland 20910.

We appreciate your help and look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Rear Admiral Gerd F. Gland
Director

Ferry service to Cuba? If these companies can survive the paper chase involved with actually obtaining licences, travel to Cuba via ferry might indeed be possible in the years ahead. This report is from MarineLog.com.

Companies receiving OFAC licenses include United Caribbean Lines

MAY 6, 2015 ‘” The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) yesterday issued a guidance regarding travel between the United States and Cuba covering on which individuals may be transported between the United States and Cuba by a person that qualifies for the general license to provide carrier services via aircraft or that has received a specific license to provide carrier services via commercial passenger vessel.

According to media reports, at least five companies were yesterday granted OFAC licenses to provide passenger vessel service.

It also seems clear that getting the OFAC licensing is just the beginning of a permitting paper trail that will also involve getting various approvals from Havana.

The five companies that have reportedly received OFAC licenses are:

Airline Brokers Co. of Miami, FL, a long-time licensed provider of air charter travel to Cuba;
Baja Ferries USA, a U.S. affiliate of Mexico’s Baja Ferries;
Havana Ferry Partners, which plans to operate as Cuba Ferry International and provide high-speed, passenger ferry service from Port Everglades and Key West, Florida to Havana, using 300 passenger high speed wave piercers
United Caribbean Lines, which is headed by cruise industry veteran Bruce Nierenberg and which plans to use overnight ferry vessels with over 400 cabins and capacity for 1,500 passengers; and
America Cruise Ferries of Puerto Rico.

If you northbound migrators are weary of inland sights, here’s something to look for offshore and she’s been following you all along your voyage! This story from the Washington Post is by Sarah Kaplan.

Meet Mary Lee, the East Coast’s friendly neighborhood great white shark

Mary Lee has all the trappings of celebrity status: a Twitter account with thousands of followers, fans who follow her every move, a heaping dose of media savvy. The fins, razor-sharp grin and taste for seal flesh are a bit more unusual, but every celebrity has her eccentricities.
Of course, Mary Lee is no Hollywood starlet. She’s a 16-foot, 3,456-pound great white shark. And she’s been lighting up social media this week as she makes her way along the Atlantic Coast.
After spending most of the year in the chilly, deep waters far off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia, Mary Lee suddenly surfaced near Virginia’s Assateague Island early this week.
Since then she’s shot up north to Atlantic City, much to the delight ‘” or terror , as the case may be ‘” of New Jersey residents.

And this from WSMD.com:

Great white shark cruising East Coast becomes Twitter star
BY PHILIP MARCELO
Associated Press
BOSTON (AP) – They’re gonna need a bigger Twitter.

An organization studying great white sharks is enjoying some welcome attention after one of the creatures they’ve been monitoring started gaining a loyal social media following. @MaryLeeShark is the fake Twitter handle for a very real, nearly 3,500-pound great white whose movements can be tracked online and in real time.
She’s drawn over 44,000 followers with her playful updates and witty replies as the real life shark cruises up and down the East Coast.

Read more: http://www.wsmv.com/story/29085292/great-white-shark-cruising-east-coast-becomes-twitter-star#ixzz3aVG6abVX

Great white Mary Lee pinged near Eastern Shore today

Posted: Sunday, May 24, 2015 6:49 pm
By Rex Springston Richmond Times-Dispatch

Update: 12 p.m. May 24
The latest ping from the tracker on Mary Lee ‘” a 3,500-pound great white shark ‘” occurred at 10:29 a.m. today east of Hog Island on the Eastern Shore.
(This has been a news update. An earlier version of the story appears below.)
If you go take a dip off the Virginia coast this Memorial Day weekend, you could be swimming with a toothy, 3,400-pound buddy.
Mary Lee, a 16-foot great white shark and an Internet sensation, is touring the Atlantic coast ‘” sometimes close to shore.
The nonprofit research and education group OCEARCH caught Mary Lee off Cape Cod in 2012 and attached an electronic tracking tag to her dorsal fin. Researchers ‘” as well as legions of Mary Lee fans following her online ‘” have been tracking her ever since.
The shark recently passed the 20,000-mile mark on her travels up and down the coast. As of Wednesday evening, she was most recently recorded off Virginia’s Eastern Shore near Chincoteague on Tuesday afternoon.

The United State Coast Guard moves further into the digital age with a mobile app to give you lots of information in the palm of your hand. Click About the App Video below for more information.

THE U.S. COAST GUARD MOBILE APP

Your safe boating needs in one free easy app! Available for download May 16, 2015 – Android

The USCG Boating Safety App features include:

Find the latest safety regulations
Request a vessel safety check
Check your safety equipment
File a float plan
Navigation Rules
Find the nearest NOAA buoy
Report a hazard
Report pollution
Report suspicious activity
Request emergency assistance
Click here for About the App Video

As the nation’s recreational boating safety coordinator, the Coast Guard works to minimize loss of life, personal injury, property damage, and environmental harm. Our boating safety program involves public education programs, regulation of boat design and construction, approval of boating safety equipment, and vessel safety checks for compliance with federal and state safety requirements. The Coast Guard Mobile App supports these missions by providing the essential services and information most commonly requested by boaters.

Features of the app include: state boating information; a safety equipment checklist; free boating safety check requests; navigation rules; float plans; and calling features to report pollution or suspicious activity. When location services are enabled, users can receive the latest weather reports from the closest National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather buoys as well as report the location of a hazard on the water.

The app also features an Emergency Assistance button which, with locations services enabled, will call the closest Coast Guard command center.

The Boating Safety Mobile app was not designed to replace a boater’s marine VHF radio, which the Coast Guard strongly recommends all boaters have aboard their vessels. The app was mainly designed to provide additional boating safety resources for mobile device users.

The app is self-contained, so personal information is stored on the phone and is not sent to the Coast Guard unless the user chooses to send it. The Coast Guard does not track a user’s location, and the app does not track a user’s location unless the app is being used.