Protecting Corals, Saving Ships

1.   Work continued during the 3^rd Quarter of FY 2005 with the Sanctuary Advisory Council Working Group with a special meeting in May 3, 2005 at the Upper Region Office, Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. This meeting was conducted to gather the information necessary to identify the target vessels/users and the areas, which require specific attention in order to encode data for use in electronic charts. Specifically the group identified the various regulatory zones and placed them in a hierarchical structure. This is a required step for the eventual development of the “Classification Scheme” and to properly encode the data for use with an electronic charting system. The meeting proved to be extremely useful and among the accomplishments were:

a.    Identification of classification/identification of targeted vessels,

b.   Identification of the targeted activities and whether or not they are permitted, and

c.   Determination of the level of detail which will be needed to explain the rules and regulations

Additional follow-up activities were conducted to finalize some of the limits of regulatory areas, as well as to define our spatial domain.

2.   The Technical Group members explored the Marine Information Objects (MIO) classification scheme and data coding methods. After some discussion, it was agreed that both coral reefs and PSSAs would be added to the Object Catalog as a new Object Class resulting in the addition of two new Object Classes. Further, it was agreed that MIOs should be structured in a fashion similar to “Additional Military Layers” (AMLs). Following that same logic, Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) will be listed as attributes. Finally, in order to gain international acceptance and support, note was made of these efforts at the next Harmonization Group on Marine Information Objects (HGMIO) at their June meeting.

3.   Communications were also established with the MPA Center, in Monterey, CA, which is involved in a similar project to bring MIO information into the Coast Pilot volumes. Specifically, this project seeks to design a System of MPAs and take a closer look at where there are needs to make MPAs more effective. Work is also taking place on international coordination on definition and classification. This group is also looking into the development of symbology to properly depict these features, something we need to look into as well. A document containing a table on “Marine Protected Areas—Summary of Restrictions,” as well as a table providing “Legal Information” which will likely have application to the Protecting Corals, Saving Ships” project has already been developed by the MPA Center. Consequently, it was considered useful for the two groups to continue to discuss areas of further cooperation and collaboration.

4.   A meeting was held with on June 10, 2005 with Captain Ted Thompson, Executive Vice President of the International Council of Cruise Lines (ICCL) to introduce the Protecting Corals, Saving Ships project to the Cruise Industry. After some discussion, it was noted that Cruise Ships were extremely interested in projects, which can provide additional supplemental information on which to base navigational decisions. Essentially, the Cruise Lines are embracing such projects since it can potentially provide the information needed to avoid incidents, which may reflect negatively on the Cruise Industry. Captain Thompson also suggested that such a system include information on the location of Right Whales, as this may have a very significant impact on ship schedules. To move ahead, Captain Thompson endorsed the project and establish an ICCL Working Group, consisting of an Operational, Technical, and Hydrographic representative who will meet directly with the Protecting Corals, Saving Ships project team in July.

5.   Some of the next steps are:

1.    Implement and test the data with available systems.

2.   Investigate the use of NOAA Ship NANCY FOSTER as test platform

3.   Investigate the use of an ICCL vessel as a test platform

4.   Use information gained to date and convert it into the technical format for review/comments/testing by all the Working Groups/Stakeholders

5.   Develop a Demo Electronic Chart System (ECS) within 3-6 months