June 8, 2005 14:25
Everyone would benefit from this since everyone is dependent on goods that are shipped by boat. While the cost savings on new charts may not be significant for shipping companies, the ability to instantly update chart data while at sea would significantly improve marine safety for very little cost.
The essential question here for mariners is: are we as tax payers paying for this data to be collected so that it can sit on a shelf or is the real purpose of having a cartographic service to provide for safe navigation? It's like buying fire engines but not hiring any firemen.
In the interest of making our (with "our" implying that although we kill each other all the time over the imaginary lines on the ground we call "borders", we still have to share the same planet) waterways safer, the exchange of marine charting data, especially in this day and age and with the available technology, should be free.
I think that a foreign sailor has just as much right, to say nothing of obligation, to navigate US waters with the knowledge of where things are as I have to navigate foreign waters with the same information. Neither of us should have to pay for the information beyond faithfully paying our taxes.
I would like to be able to leave as clean a wake as possible and would expect others would aspire to do the same. Safe navigation is one way to make that happen and safe navigation is greatly facilitated by access to accurate, up to date charts.
Write your elected officials if you have them. if they don't respond elect new ones.
The essential question here for mariners is: are we as tax payers paying for this data to be collected so that it can sit on a shelf or is the real purpose of having a cartographic service to provide for safe navigation? It's like buying fire engines but not hiring any firemen.
In the interest of making our (with "our" implying that although we kill each other all the time over the imaginary lines on the ground we call "borders", we still have to share the same planet) waterways safer, the exchange of marine charting data, especially in this day and age and with the available technology, should be free.
I think that a foreign sailor has just as much right, to say nothing of obligation, to navigate US waters with the knowledge of where things are as I have to navigate foreign waters with the same information. Neither of us should have to pay for the information beyond faithfully paying our taxes.
I would like to be able to leave as clean a wake as possible and would expect others would aspire to do the same. Safe navigation is one way to make that happen and safe navigation is greatly facilitated by access to accurate, up to date charts.
Write your elected officials if you have them. if they don't respond elect new ones.