Outdated Charts Of Arctic Waters Could Threaten Ship Safety

"As the ice recedes, we are realizing that our charting is abysmal," Huebert said Thursday. "There's some areas of the Canadian North [in which] the maritime charting goes back to the Franklin days." Navigational technology was limited in Franklin's time, Huebert said, leading to vague or inaccurate chart measurements. "The biggest danger, of course, is that you send a vessel that is clearly too large into waters that are too shallow or too dangerous," he said. "If you all of a sudden go into waters that you think are relatively deep and relatively safe because the chart tells you that — but it turns out the chart is wrong — that is where you have these very, very massive accidents." ... http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2008/01/04/north-ships.html

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