{"id":168294,"date":"2015-12-18T10:13:20","date_gmt":"2015-12-18T15:13:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/noaacoastsurvey.wordpress.com\/?p=168294"},"modified":"2015-12-18T10:13:20","modified_gmt":"2015-12-18T15:13:20","slug":"noaa-and-cuban-chartmakers-working-together-to-improve-maritime-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/noaa-and-cuban-chartmakers-working-together-to-improve-maritime-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"NOAA and Cuban chartmakers working together to improve maritime safety"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following up on Coast Survey\u2019s visit to Havana last spring, Cuban hydrographic officials traveled to Maryland on December 15-17, to meet with NOAA National Ocean Service<\/a> leaders for discussions about potential future collaboration. High on the agenda for Coast Survey is improving nautical charts for maritime traffic transiting the increasingly busy Straits of Florida.
\nThe historic meeting began with Dr. Russell Callender<\/a>, NOS acting assistant administrator, welcoming the Cuban delegation, led by Colonel Candido Regalado Gomez, chief of Cuba\u2019s National Office of Hydrography and Geodesy.
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\n

\"Callender,
NOS Acting Assistant Administrator Russ Callender (left) and Coast Survey Director Rear Adm. Gerd Glang (right) welcome Colonel Candido Regalado Gomez, chief of Cuba’s Office of Hydrography and Geodesy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\n\u201cYou will receive briefings today as a backdrop to the hydrographic collaboration we are pursuing to make maritime navigation safer in the transboundary waters our nations share,\u201d Callender told the group. \u201cI hope your meetings this week in Silver Spring will contribute to your understanding of the breadth and work of NOAA firsthand, and strengthen our work together.\u201d
\nThe five Cuban officials and representatives from NOAA\u2019s navigation services and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency<\/a> worked through the day, explaining the ins-and-outs of each other\u2019s responsibilities and processes. The teams were ready, by the end of the jam-packed agenda, to resolve charting challenges that interfere with smooth navigational transitions from Cuban waters to U.S. waters in the busy Straits of Florida.
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\"cubaSAISh\"
This heat density map of maritime traffic illustrates the high volume of traffic (the brown area south of Florida) needing seamless chart coverage.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nFirst, Cuba\u2019s Office of National Hydrography and Geodesy and Coast Survey\u2019s Marine Chart Division confirmed the division of responsibilities and updated each other on the progress for collaborating on international charts (known in mariner\u2019s parlance as \u201cINT Charts\u201d) 4148, 4149, 4017, and 4021. Then, in a technical move sure to please recreational boaters and commercial mariners alike, the two countries conferred on adjusting Cuba and U.S. electronic navigational charts to eliminate overlaps and gaps in coverage.
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\"U.S.
U.S. and Cuban officials met at NOAA Coast Survey offices in Silver Spring, Maryland, for an intensive day of reports and collaboration. From left to right, Dr. Russell Callender, acting assistant administrator for the National Ocean Service; Rear Admiral Gerd Glang, director of Coast Survey; Richard Edwing, director of CO-OPS; John Lowell, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency\u2019s chief hydrographer; Tim Wiley, environmental engagement officer, Office of the Coordinator for Cuban Affairs, U.S. Department of State; Captain Richard Brennan, chief of Coast Survey Development Laboratory; Sladjana Maksimovic, Coast Survey cartographer; Edenia Machin Gonzalez, scientist, Cuba\u2019s National Cartographic Agency; Ramon Padron Diaz, frigate captain and chief of Hydrographic Department, Cuba\u2019s National Office of Hydrography; Colonel Candido Regalado Gomez, chief of Cuba\u2019s National Office of Hydrography and Geodesy; and Victor E. Aluija Urgell, lieutenant\/general director, GEOCUBA Marine Studies.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nBy examining adjacent and adjoining ENCs, both sides were able to confer on ways to improve chart coverage in the busy Straits of Florida, where chart misalignments can play havoc with navigational systems as a vessel moves across maritime borders. Countries around the world regularly resolve these issues, as the U.S. does with Canada and Mexico, through regional consultations hosted by the International Hydrographic Organization<\/a> but, until now, the U.S. and Cuba were unable to work together on their common set of challenges.
\nCoast Survey initiated the charting discussions earlier this year, when a team of cartographic professionals traveled to Havana in February for three days of meetings with Cuban officials from the Office of National Hydrography and Geodesy and GEOCUBA. During the visit, the Americans and Cubans agreed to work together on a new international paper chart, INT Chart 4149, which will cover south Florida, the Bahamas, and north Cuba. The Office of Coast Survey is now creating the chart, using data supplied by the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office<\/a> and the Cubans in addition to U.S. data, and plans to publish the new chart in 2016.
\nThis week\u2019s charting progress follows closely on another major accomplishment. Last month, NOAA Administrator Dr. Kathryn Sullivan and Dr. Holly Bamford, acting assistant secretary of conservation and management, traveled to Havana to sign a Memorandum of Understanding on Marine Protected Area<\/a> cooperation between our two countries. The agreement provides an opportunity for the U.S and Cuba to develop science, education, and management programs between sister sites in both countries, and will strengthen our collaborative relationship.
\n\u201cThe Cuban maritime industry, like many U.S. ports, is building new infrastructure to support commerce and tourism,\u201d said Rear Admiral Gerd Glang, director of Coast Survey. \u201cLike us, they are improving their charts as port and coastal uses evolve, to support expanding maritime commerce.\u201d
\n\u201cWe are now able to work together, as we do with other nations, to coordinate chart coverage and data acquisition.\u201d
\n
\"Katie
In addition to hours of indoor meetings, the Cuban delegation was able to spend some time discussing data acquisition onboard Coast Survey\u2019s research vessel, Bay Hydro II<\/em>, homeported in Solomons, Maryland. Kathryn Ries (in blue jacket), deputy director of Coast Survey, hosted Ramon Padron Diaz, frigate captain and chief of the Hydrographic Department, Cuba\u2019s National Office of Hydrography; Victor E. Aluija Urgell, lieutenant\/general director, GEOCUBA Marine Studies; Edenia Machin Gonzalez, scientist, National Cartographic Agency \u2013 Cuba; Yanet Stable Cardenas, first secretary, Embassy of the Republic of Cuba; and Colonel Candido Regalado Gomez, chief of Cuba\u2019s National Office of Hydrography and Geodesy.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a technical move sure to please recreational boaters and commercial mariners alike, the two countries conferred on adjusting Cuba and U.S. electronic navigational charts to eliminate overlaps and gaps in coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168339,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,37,9,10],"tags":[118],"class_list":["post-168294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cartography","category-commerce","category-international-cooperation","category-nautical-charts","tag-cuba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}