Since 1807, Coast Survey has endured to keep mariners safe and maritime commerce flowing, under the leadership of now 32 superintendents and directors. 2025 was Coast Survey’s last under Rear Admiral (lower half) Benjamin K. Evans, who was relieved as Director in early 2026 by Rear Admiral (lower half) Christiaan van Westendorp.
Coast Survey is excited for what’s to come under RDML van Westendorp’s leadership–the continued evolution of the National Bathymetric Source program, two new hydrographic ships built from the keel-up to incorporate uncrewed systems, more S-100 rollouts, and more–but wanted to first look back on everything the office accomplished in 2025 to build a strong foundation for a safer, more efficient marine economy.
Accomplishments detailed below are organized in line with Coast Survey’s Strategic Plan, which sets our course towards the following goals:
- Expand and strengthen U.S. capabilities to acquire high-value ocean and coastal geospatial data.
- Deliver products and services that advance safe navigation, increase coastal resilience, and support data-driven decision making.
- Enhance and sustain a highly skilled workforce.
- Evolve Coast Survey’s systems and processes to improve timely product development and delivery.
Expand acquisition of high-value ocean and coastal geospatial data
2025 Hydrographic Survey Projects
Hydrographic survey ships, navigation response teams, and contractors began their survey season in March 2025. The ships and survey vessels collected 68,090 linear nautical miles of bathymetric data to support nautical charting, modeling, and research, but also collect other environmental data to support a variety of ecosystem sciences.
Visit the 2025 ArcGIS StoryMap to learn more about these mapping projects.
Progress on Mapping U.S. Waters
In 2025, the Federal Interagency Working Group on Ocean and Coastal Mapping released the sixth annual report on progress made in mapping U.S. ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes waters. Adding roughly 71,500 square nautical miles of new, publicly-accessible, bathymetric data to the analysis in calendar year 2024, the report showed that 46% of U.S. waters remain unmapped as of January 2025. This annual report is used to track progress toward national goals to fully map U.S. ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes waters by 2040. Previous reports may be found at the webpage, Status of Seafloor Mapping Within U.S. Waters. The next annual assessment of unmapped U.S. waters will be published in March 2026.
Hydrographic survey data supports DCA aircraft collision recovery efforts
On January 29, 2025, a commercial jetliner and a U.S. Army helicopter collided in midair over the Potomac River, near Washington’s Ronald Reagan National Airport. On February 2, the U.S. Coast Guard and District of Columbia Fire Department requested NOAA Coast Survey’s expertise in hydrographic surveying to locate wreckage from the incident using multibeam and side scan sonar technology. Once Coast Survey arrived, the incident command team turned over virtually all survey operations, particularly in the shallow water debris field, to our field units.
The Coast Survey navigation response teams worked alongside the National Transportation Safety Board, the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, DC Fire and EMS, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and other partners for eight straight days until the recovery effort was largely complete. In total, the navigation response teams acquired 32 linear nautical miles of multibeam echosounder data and 26 linear nautical miles of side scan sonar data. From these data, the location and acoustic imagery of 58 objects were provided directly to Navy, DC Fire, and FBI divers to focus their salvage efforts.
Port of Valdez Seafloor is Fully Mapped via the Brennan Ocean Mapping Fund
Coast Survey successfully partnered with the City of Valdez, Alaska to complete hydrographic surveys in Port Valdez. The project focused on obtaining modern data on the unconsolidated sediments in Valdez basin to better inform landslide and tsunami models from earthquakes, as well as to update nautical charting products in the area. Responding to local needs for additional data to improve hazard forecasting models, the project area included Valdez Glacier lake, which is located above the City of Valdez, and a significant data gap in both City and U.S. Geological Survey models for landslides. The project resulted in high resolution bathymetry and backscatter data over approximately 34 square nautical miles, establishing a contemporary baseline to help city emergency managers understand and prepare for potential impacts of submarine landslides.
The Valdez project was selected as part of the FY25 Brennan Ocean Mapping Fund opportunity. The Brennan Ocean Mapping Fund, which was established by statute in 2022 (33 U.S.C. § 3504a, 3506), is one way that NOAA seeks to increase the coordinated acquisition, processing, stewardship, and archival of new ocean and coastal mapping data in U.S. waters. With this funding opportunity, NOAA matches selected non-Federal partners at a 70:30/NOAA:partner ratio for projects proposing to contract for ocean, coastal, and/or Great Lakes mapping data.
Data Released for Long Island Sound Partner Project via the Brennan Ocean Mapping Fund
Selected as part of the FY24 Brennan Ocean Mapping Fund opportunity, new seafloor mapping data from a Long Island Sound partnership project was posted to NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (under surveys H13926 – H13931). The data were the result of a successful partnership between NOAA and the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (CTDEEP).
NOAA contractors collected approximately 170 square nautical miles and over 4,500 linear nautical miles of full-coverage, multibeam bathymetry and backscatter data. The Long Island Sound Seafloor Habitat Mapping Initiative, which is managed by CTDEEP and administered by the Long Island Sound Cable Fund Steering Committee (consisting of Federal, state, and academic partners from Connecticut and New York), will use these data to support domestic energy development and production and the routing of electric transmission cables through Long Island Sound. NOAA will use the data to support maritime commerce and other interests by improving nautical charts and other mapping products.
New U.S. Mapping Coordination Site
To enable cooperative mapping efforts as prescribed by the Ocean and Coastal Mapping Integration Act (33 U.S.C. § 3501) and make the most of every survey mile, the mapping community requires an awareness of mapping priorities, near- and long-term data acquisition plans, and current data availability. For 10 years and running, NOAA’s Integrated Ocean and Coastal Mapping (IOCM) team has hosted the U.S. Mapping Coordination Site. In March 2025, the IOCM team released an updated version of the website with expanded capabilities.
The U.S. Mapping Coordination site is a key pillar of Federal efforts to facilitate cost-effective mapping data acquisition, particularly for partners of USGS’s 3D Elevation Program, members of the Interagency Working Group on Ocean and Coastal Mapping, and non-Federal partners within U.S. regional mapping campaigns and the Academic Research Fleet. On the site, users can share upcoming mapping plans and priorities for lidar (topographic, bathymetric, and topobathy), sonar (hydrography, bathymetry, water column, etc.), digital imagery (airborne and satellite), and more via a Submit Your Areas Form. Also available are collection footprints submitted by others and the ability to submit data to inform preliminary mapping data acquisition plans, supporting the motto “Map Once, Use Many Times.”
Deliver products and services that advance safe navigation, increase coastal resilience, and support data-driven decision making
Multi-year efforts result in critical navigation product updates in Mississippi and Alaska
NOAA continues to engage closely with stakeholders to further refine navigational products that meet unique local needs.
In the Lower Mississippi River, working with the local marine pilots, Coast Survey concluded a multi-year effort to update the clearances for the seven bridges between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, ensuring the safety and efficiency of maritime navigation. By leveraging advanced lidar technology and aligning clearance data with modern surveying standards, NOAA equips mariners with precise, real-time information to navigate one of the Nation’s busiest and economically significant waterways.
Meanwhile, in Alaska, Coast Survey and the National Geodetic Survey developed a new process for updating Yukon River charts with the most current shoreline information. The Yukon River is frozen more than half the year, limiting the window for barges to deliver fuel, building materials, heavy equipment, and other supplies that cannot be transported by air. When it does thaw, ice and strong runoff shift the navigable channel. Working with tug companies that operate on Alaskan rivers, NOAA developed a process to update the shoreline data and nautical charts each year before the shipping season commences.
See an example of these updates along the Yukon River near Sunshine Bay, below:
Modernizing Navigation Services: National Bathymetric Source Releases Regional Coverage in Southeast Alaska
This year, Coast Survey released the first publication of the National Bathymetric Source (NBS) for Southeast Alaska. This release delivers a harmonized, authoritative bathymetric surface for one of the Nation’s most dynamic maritime regions, integrating data from multiple providers into a single, trusted source. By making this high-quality bathymetry broadly available, NBS strengthens navigation safety, supports coastal resilience planning, and advances NOAA’s mission to foster sustainable economic activity in coastal communities.
The Southeast Alaska publication represents the first regional implementation of NBS on the west coast of the U.S., marking tangible progress toward the program’s nationwide rollout. As a cornerstone of the National Ocean Service’s commitment to the marine economy, the NBS supports precision marine navigation, scientific research, and ecosystem stewardship by ensuring decision-makers, mariners, and coastal managers have access to the most accurate, up-to-date seafloor information.
NOAA Center of Excellence for Operational Ocean and Great Lakes Mapping
NOAA’s Center of Excellence for Operational Ocean and Great Lakes Mapping revolutionized fleet support by establishing the Mapping Support Team, a unified technical framework that successfully tracked and resolved 134 issues across 16 field units including NOAA vessels, navigation response teams, and DRiX uncrewed systems. As part of this initiative, the Center launched a standardized pre-season calibration program that replaces legacy self-assessments with a collaborative workflow to ensure fleet-wide system health prior to deployment, as well as uncrewed system and small boat readiness. The Center of Excellence also effectively carried out the Nancy Foster Quality Assurance Test Pilot project; continued to expand the training framework; and developed and released the NOAA Mapping Specialist Tier 1 Qualification Checklist.
Evolve Coast Survey’s systems and processes to accelerate product development and delivery
Automation and process improvements make hydrographic data delivery 75% faster
Coast Survey has drastically improved the speed and efficiency of our data throughput, or how hydrographers get data from a ship’s sonar ping to nautical products.
In the past four years, Coast Survey has made data processing 65% faster and delivery of products 75% faster. This includes adjusting sonar data for water level, boat position, quality control and quality assurance, and all other corrections Coast Survey’s experts need to apply to make the data safe for navigation. The entire throughput now takes about 2.5 months in 2025–down from more than a year in 2021.
Coast Survey also continued transitioning NOAA’s electronic navigational charts from original paper chart scales to a regular grid. This gridding effort is now 73% complete, and Coast Survey is on track to finish by the end of 2026, shortening the project timeline by about ten years.
Altogether, this work enables Coast Survey to deliver navigation products and services quickly and accurately to the hands of mariners navigating U.S. waters.
NOAA-University of New Hampshire Joint Hydrographic Center
In September, NOAA awarded the University of New Hampshire, through its Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping (CCOM), a new 5-year cooperative agreement grant to continue the Joint Hydrographic Center (JHC). The new grant focuses on three national ocean mapping program priorities—Advancing Technology to Expand and Strengthen U.S. Capabilities to Acquire High-Value Ocean and Coastal Geospatial Data, Delivery of Marine Geospatial Products and Services, and Developing and Advancing Marine Geospatial and Soundscape Expertise. CCOM faculty and research scientists at the JHC will tackle research and education tasks. Among the research efforts are continued development of improved technology for hydrography and ocean mapping from uncrewed vessels; advancements in cloud computing, AI, and machine learning for acquiring, processing and adding value to hydrographic data; and new visualization technology for precision marine navigation.
Stakeholder and Partner Engagement Events
Coast Survey could not fulfill its mission without Federal, state, and local partners, and robust input from academia, industry, and the public. Coast Survey’s staff maintains and builds strong relationships with hydrographic offices worldwide to ensure our data, products, and services will be globally interoperable. See below for a sample of many productive external engagements in 2025.
- United States and Japan Cooperative Program in Natural Resources (UJNR) (January 2025)
- Houston Boat Show (January 2025)
- Miami International Boat Show (February 2025)
- NOAA Center of Excellence – Center for Ocean Mapping and Innovative Technologies Annual Review (February 2025)
- Canadian Hydrographic Conference/U.S.-Canada Regional Hydrographic Conference (March 2025)
- Southwest Pacific Hydrographic Conference (March 2025)
- Spring Hydrographic Services Review Panel (May 2025)
- Arctic Regional Hydrographic Commission (September 2025)
- Mississippi River Commission High Water Inspection Trip (March 2025) and Low Water Inspection Trip (August 2025)
- IHO Council (October 2025)
- Workboat Conference (December 2025)
- Meso-American Caribbean Sea Hydro Commission (December 2025)
- Navigation Technology Conference (December 2025)
- Harbor Safety Committee Meetings (many throughout the year)
- 2025 Texas Coastal Ocean Observation Network (TCOON) Annual Meeting
Interested in engaging with Coast Survey? Get in touch with your local Navigation Manager!