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A Nautical Chart is a graphic portrayal of the marine environment. They are used to lay out courses and navigate ships by the shortest and most economically safe route. They can also serve as base maps for resource management and shoreline development planning by state and local government.
Charts depict the location of the shoreline, minimum water depths, aids to navigation, hazards to navigation, the nature and form of the coast, water depths, the general character and configuration of the sea bottom, the rise and fall of the tides, protected areas and the characteristics of the Earth's magnetism.
NOAA's Office of Coast Survey, in partnership with OceanGrafix, LLC, offers mariners official nautical charts continually updated by NOAA cartographers to the latest Notice to Mariners and to all Critical Safety Information known to the Office of Coast Survey in advance of its publication in a Notice. From NOAA digital files OceanGrafix prints corrected charts, to order, for sale to mariners through the OceanGrafix retail network under the brand name Charts-on-Demand.
Each chart is published periodically as a new edition depending on several parameters such as critical corrections, changing physical conditions, up to date data availability, high vessel traffic area, and demand.
The NOAA charts are built and maintained according to the policies and procedures documented in the two volumes of the Nautical Chart Manual. Questions in reference to symbols, abbreviations, policy and procedures are managed by the Marine Chart Division, Quality Assurance Policy Standard Branch (QAPSB). For a contact point visit: http://chartmaker.ncd.noaa.gov/staff/contact.htm.
Another source of this type of discrepancy is that symbols on a chart of a given scale may be a representation for multiple real features that are too close together to be shown at chart scale. Similarly, symbols may be displaced from their original location for legibility and presentation. The NOAA Nautical Chart Manual has an extensive description of the horizontal datum.
OceanGrafix, LLC. warrants that the nautical charts manufactured by OceanGrafix as authorized by NOAA and NOS, pursuant to that certain Cooperative Research and Development Agreement entered into by and among OceanGrafix, NOAA, and NOS, are accurate reproductions of the nautical chart data files and updates thereto provided to OceanGrafix by NOAA and NOS. Additionally, OceanGrafix warrants that the Charts shall be free from defects in manufacturing materials and workmanship for a period of 90 days from the date of shipment of the Charts from OceanGrafix to the chart agent.