60 THE NAVY OCEANOGRAPHIC OPERATIONS PROGRAM 



insure safety of navigation. This maintenance is accomplished 

 by the issuance of daily radio messages, weekly printed Notices 

 to Mariners, periodically revised chart printings, and when 

 necessary, new charts or publications or completely revised chart 

 editions. 



Over 4000 standard nautical charts are on issue by the 

 U. S. Naval Oceanographic Office. Most of these charts are 

 based on U. S. Navy surveys and various foreign chart sources. 

 To provide more timely service and the latest available information 

 to the mariner, more and more charts are being issued as modified 

 facsimile reproductions of foreign charts. These reproductions 

 are published under bilateral agreements with foreign hydrographic 

 offices. 



The standard nautical chart program as now scheduled through 

 Fiscal Year 1973 calls for the publication of approximately 400 

 new charts and nearly 800 new editions. These figures do not 

 include modified facsimiles made of foreign charts for geographical 

 areas of particular U. S. interest. The immediate program is 

 concentrated largely on the production of charts for use by U. S. 

 Forces in Southeast Asia. In addition, some large-scale charts 

 are programmed for ports in South and Central America being 

 surveyed under the Harbor Survey Assistance Program, while 

 others are being produced to reflect hydrographic surveys carried 

 out in recent years by U. S. Navy ships in foreign waters elsewhere 

 in the world. The remaining charts will provide coverage needed 

 to fulfill Navy and merchant shipping requirements throughout 

 the world, including Antarctica. 



A number of special version nautical charts are produced. 

 Many of these are standard charts to which Fleet operating areas, 

 anchorage berths, military grids, territorial sea limits, navigational 

 lattice lines, radar calibration grids, or other special operational 

 information have been added. Nautical charts, regardless of scale 

 or type, are the sine qua non of further ocean exploration and 

 exploitation, inasmuch as they provide the basic framework on 

 which such activity is planned and executed. 



Nautical charts and related publications published by the 

 Oceanographic Office are listed in H. O. Publication 1-N, Catalog 

 of Nautical Charts and Publications. This publication is issued 

 in the form of ten separate geographic regional catalogs and three 



