WASHINGTON — October 22, 2013 — The federal government is going into uncharted waters, deep-sixing the giant paper nautical charts that it has been printing for mariners for more than 150 years.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Tuesday that to save money, the government will stop turning out the traditional brownish, heavy paper maps after mid-April.
The agency will still chart the water for rocks, shipwrecks and other hazards, but sailors, boaters and fishermen will have to use private on-demand printing, PDFs or electronic maps to see the information, said Capt. Shep Smith, head of NOAA’s marine chart division.
“Think of them as the roadmap of the ocean,” said Smith, who grew up with charts of Penobscot Bay on his bedroom walls in Maine. “The navigational charts tell you what’s under the water, which is critical for navigation.”