national defense; and Navy producing charts directed more to meeting the 

 needs of global defense operations, although these products are largely avail- 

 able for civilian use. 



NOAA's nautical charting program includes conventional nautical charts, 

 small-craft charts, and Great Lakes charts, and such supplementary publica- 

 tions as Coast Pilots, Lake Pilots, Tide and Current Tables, and other prod- 

 ucts relating to the waters of the United States and its possessions. NOAA 

 now publishes a total of 825 nautical charts, of which 78 are especially de- 

 signed for the recreational boater. In 1971, 479 of these charts were revised 

 and updated and three new charts were issued. Ships and field parties con- 

 ducted extensive hydrographic and oceanographic surveys in support of the 

 nautical charting program along the coasts of Alaska, California, Hawaii, 

 North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Puerto Rico, and American Samoa 

 as well as in Delaware Bay, Massachusetts Bay, and Oregon's Umpqua River. 

 Special surveys were performed between Florida and the Bahamas and in 

 the Gulf of Maine. Other surveys included wire drag surveys of Gulf of 

 Mexico sealanes and the entrance to Delaware Bay; and tidal current sur- 

 veys in the Charleston, S.C., and Boston, Mass., Harbors. 



During Fiscal Year 1973, NOAA plans to continue these hydrographic 

 operations along the coasts of Alaska, California, Hawaii, South Carolina, 

 Puerto Rico, and in Delaware Bay. Wire drag surveys of safety fairways and 

 separation lanes on the Gulf of Mexico and around major east coast ports 

 will continue, and circulatory surveys in the Port Royal Sound and Savannah 



Nine ships of NOAA's fleet gathered at their Pacific Marine Center base in Seattle, 

 Washington. Clockwise from bottom left: Surveyor, Oceanographer, Fairweather, 

 Davidson, Milton Freeman, McArthur, Kelez, Rainier, and Pathfinder. 



56 



