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Publication #SGEF 139

A Recreational Boater-Based Method for Re-designing the NOS Small-Craft Chart (Executive Summary)1

Gustavo Antonini, Niels West, Charles Sidman, Robert Swett2

Abstract:

NOAA's Small-Craft Charts were first developed to serve the needs of recreational boaters, inshore fishers, and other users operating in close proximity to the shore. Since then, few conceptual changes have been made to these charts even though there has been a dramatic increase in the number and types of recreational users. Today, the small-craft chart is being used in ways that could not be envisioned when these charts were first produced: diving, racing, nature-touring, wildlife-viewing are current boating activities, in addition to traditional uses, such as sailing, fishing, anchoring and cruising. The need to promote safe navigation, the primary goal of charting, is being challenged by the numbers and varied types of contemporary recreational users. Furthermore, the conventional small-craft chart does not contain information needed to make current users aware of coastal resources. NOAA and other federal agencies, states and local municipalities, are increasingly concerned about the environmental impacts caused by recreational boating.

This project was designed to determine the chart information needs of boaters which satisfy safe navigation and promote stewardship. Study objectives include: identifying the information needed by today's boater to promote safe navigation and stewardship; developing a prototype small-craft chart, and ancillary map/guide products, which include information identified by recreational boaters, fishers, divers, resource managers and environmentalists, to modernize a new generation chart; evaluating the utility of the additional information provided on the prototype products through a boater survey; and analyzing whether the new information contained on the prototype chart and ancillary products can change boater's environmental perception, attitudes, behavior, and knowledge on-the-water.

Footnotes

1.

This is a publication of the Florida Sea Grant College Program, supported by the National Sea Grant College Program of the United States Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration under NOAA Grant # NA76RG-0120. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of these agencies.

Originally published as SGEF 139, December 2000. Reviewed March 2009.

2.

Gustavo Antonini, Deceased, Florida Sea Grant and the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, PO Box 110405, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-0405.

Niels West, Retired - Professor Emeritus of Marine Affairs, Department of Marine Affairs, Washburn Hall, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI 02881; NIELSMAF@uriacc.uri.edu.

Charles Sidman, Florida Sea Grant and the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, PO Box 110405, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-0405; csidman@ufl.edu.

Robert Swett, Florida Sea Grant and the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, PO Box 110405, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-0405; rswett@ufl.edu .

The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal Opportunity Institution authorized to provide research, educational information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations. For more information on obtaining other extension publications, contact your county Cooperative Extension service.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Florida, IFAS, Florida A. & M. University Cooperative Extension Program, and Boards of County Commissioners Cooperating. Millie Ferrer-Chancy, Interim Dean.