Collaboration

While the primary mission of the Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS) is to survey Canada’s navigable waters to produce nautical charts and other products, CHS collaborates with other government agencies, private industry and international partners, on projects regarding environmental protection, defence and security, natural resources, transportation and tourism, as well as the following:

• The CHS Permanent Water Level Network is also used for tsunami emergency preparedness and emergency response.
• to contribute to the international Argo project, which tracks ocean events around the world.
• Assessing the potential use of tidal currents and waves as renewable energy and the possible environmental impacts on Canada's maritime resources in:
  • Johnstone Strait, Vancouver Island
  • the Bay of Fundy , where tidal current projects are under way.
  • the waters off Vancouver Island
  • And the compilation, in 2006, of an Inventory of Canada's Marine Renewable Energy Resources, with support from the National Research Council of Canada.
• Surveying for national security in B.C.'s coastal waters for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and for the 2010 G-8 Summit in Huntsville, Ontario
  
• Charting the rugged, shoal-infested northern Labrador coast for the Canadian Coast Guard's search-and-rescue requirements
  
• Charting the water depths of the liquefied natural gas terminal, built by Irving Oil and the Spanish oil company Reposol, in Saint John, New Brunswick
  
• Conducting hydrographic surveys for the Nereida project of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO)
  
• Sea-bed mapping to recover the wreckage of a Swiss Air passenger jet off the coast of Nova Scotia in 1998
  
• River-bed surveys in the St. Lawrence to explore potential sites for off-shore underwater turbines
  
• Updating navigation charts for the west coast of British Columbia to establish new routes for deep-draught tankers in response to increased demand, such as Enbridge's Northern Gateway Project
  
• Ocean-bed surveys for Parks Canada to search for Sir John Franklin's ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, which disappeared in the Arctic Ocean in 1848
  
• Working in cooperation with Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada and other departments to determine the extent of the Continental Shelf for a submission regarding the United Nations Convention for the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).