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Latest Issue - No. 18, October 2011

Notices to Mariners (NOTMAR) Web Site Awareness

Do you want to update your charts and nautical publications, know about our new initiatives and services and be informed of some important announcements concerning the maritime community?  Just click on http://www.notmar.gc.ca.

This site provides the Notice to Mariners publication, which informs mariners of important navigational safety matters affecting Canadian Waters.

Notices to Mariners are continuous means employed by the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG), to promulgate information required by the master, pilot or person in charge of the navigation of a vessel, as well as other interested parties. The Notices to Mariners contain the necessary information to ensure that nautical charts, Sailing Directions, List of Lights, Annual Edition of Notices to Mariners and Radio Aids to Marine Navigation publications are kept up-to-date.  Mariners are also informed of the enactment of regulations and the establishment of procedures governing vessel entry into and transit in Canadian waters.

This electronic publication is published on a monthly basis and can be downloaded from the Notices to Mariners (NOTMAR) Web site.  It is prepared jointly with the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) and the Canadian Hydrographic Services (CHS).  The information in the Notice to Mariners is formatted to simplify the correction of paper charts and navigational publications, which are listed above.

The NOTMAR.gc.ca site is a free 24/7 service providing mariners with up-to-date safety advisories.   It provides mariners with a quick and easy to use interface to access Notices to Mariners information. This system also generates weekly and monthly notification mailers, for its registered users.  These on-line mail services provides the monthly Notices to Mariners publications as well as the weekly(section II - chart corrections) notices that advise the mariner of the notices that have been issued against their chart selections.  These mail services simplify the process for our registered clients to update their publications and charts as required under the Canada Shipping Act. 

Visitors wishing to receive the Monthly Notices to Mariners publications electronically can do so from the following web page: http://www.notmar.gc.ca/subscribe/ .  If you are interested in receiving nautical chart updates please register here.

The NOTMAR web site also includes a search engine which permits you to query notices by chart number to obtain all active notices affecting them; the historical Chart corrections and historical Sailing Direction corrections; as well, it provides access to downloadable Chart Patches, contains links to CHS’s Chart Number 1, instructions for applying Notices to mariners to manually update your paper charts and other useful information.

Feedback, site ideas and/or recommendations are always welcome.

Please feel free to send us an email at notmar@dfo-mpo.gc.ca.

The Bulletin is available online at
http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/sch-ppb/bulletin/archives-eng.htm