Protecting Corals, Saving Ships

1.    Activity in the second quarter of FY 2006 was somewhat deliberate due to the unknown funding level of the project. However, work continued to determine the correct geographic coordinates of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuaries (FKNMS) regulated areas. Progress was made, although geographic coordinates remain to be determined where the FKNMS boundary coincides with the Everglades National Park. A textual description rather than geographic coordinates describes this boundary in the available source documents. But, in order to utilize this information in an ENC, geographic coordinates are essential.

2.    Progress was also made in the effort to ensure that the entire FKNMS area is covered by ENCs. Approximately 15 ENCs are needed to cover the area and about half are already completed. The remaining ENCs are on schedule to be completed by August 2006. It is important to attain full ENC coverage of the entire area in order to demonstrate to the mariner the benefits of using ENCs with the supplemental Marine Information Object layers

3.     Another important element of this project is the classification scheme to be used to encode the data. For this, we are working with the MPA Center in Monterey, CA, who has developed such a system. At this time we are awaiting the release of a “Cross-walk” between MPA Center and the World Conservation Union (formerly the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) (IUCN) Classification Systems. This will be extremely important in order to gain international support. This “Cross-walk” between the MPA Center‛s System and the IUCN Classification System has been developed to demonstrate that the MPA Functional Classification System is complementary to -- not a substitute for -- the IUCN approach

4.     The “Protecting Corals, Saving Ships” project was the April 2006 news feature on the NOS Web. It describes the project in basic terms and shows another application of nautical chart data, while demonstrating and highlighting the activities of multiple NOS offices. The article can be seen at: http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/news/features/supp_apr06.html.