Podcasts about coast survey

“S” is for Sawyer, Frederick Adolphus (1822-1891). U. S. senator. After leaving the Senate, Frederick Adolphus Sawyer remained in government for many years, serving in the U.S. Treasury Department, the Coast Survey, and the War Department.

- Sunshine Coast Survey results- Podcast differences out of RadioDaysAsia- Movements- Special guests: High Scrollers- RCS Airplay song of the weekSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

- Central Coast Survey results- A Look at the 34th ACRA Awards- Big week of movements- Podcast of the week- RCS Airplay song of the weekSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week: special guest Jack Lawrence from the "One Minute Remaining" podcast, Sunshine Coast survey 1 of 2022; Triple J's 'requestival' returns, PLUSPodcast & Song Of The Week.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode, hosts Peter Ravella and Tyler Buckingham talk to Rear Adm. (Ret.) Shepard Smith about his retirement after 28 years at NOAA, and his new position as chief technology officer (CTO) at XOCEAN. At NOAA, Smith rose to the rank of Rear Admiral and was closely involved in advancing state-of-the-art hydrography and nautical cartography. His ten years of working at sea included tours in Alaska, the Pacific and the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, and four years as the Commanding Officer and Chief Scientist of the NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson. In his final role with NOAA, he served as Director of the Office of Coast Survey, where he oversaw the U.S. national programs in hydrography and nautical cartography. Smith also represented the United States at the International Hydrographic Organization and regional hydrographic commissions.  Using Uncrewed Surface Vessels (USVs), XOCEAN provides data collection services to surveyors, companies and government agencies. In his new role, Shep will lead the company into its next phase of growth, developing a new technology roadmap, advancing the boundaries of USV tech, and driving the technical vision for the business. Website: https://xocean.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/xocean Twitter: https://twitter.com/xoceansocial

Hello Interactors,This post is part of a three week experiment. I’ve divided my topic into three parts each taking a bit less time for you to read or listen. They each can stand on their own (maybe), but hopefully come together to form a bigger picture. Please let me know what you think.Maps are such a big part of our daily lives that it’s easy to let them wash over us. But they’re also very powerful forms of communication that require our attention and scrutiny. If we don’t, we run the risk of being hypnotized and even deluded.As interactors, you’re special individuals self-selected to be a part of an evolutionary journey. You’re also members of an attentive community so I welcome your participation.Please leave your comments below or email me directly.Now let’s go…Someone posted a map on Facebook recently showing just how close Russia is to Alaska. The post read, “This should make you 😳 America. My kids were not taught as much geography and history as I was growing up. This probably needs to be shared to remind us all. For those who think Russia is all the way on the other side of the world [it is] only 53 miles at the Bering Strait’s narrowest point. Like us driving from Cedar Rapids to Waterloo.”The comments to the post echoed this worry with words like, “Too many don’t realize this.”; “There are small islands 25 miles apart.”; “OOOOOOOOO scary.”; and “I’ll admit that I didn’t realize this.”   They probably didn’t realize this either: the United States and Russia not only share the largest maritime border in the world – a line stretching 1600 nautical miles dividing the Chukchi Sea to the north and the Bering Sea to the south – but it cuts straight through two islands called the Diomedes. On one side is Russia’s Big Diomede – actually part of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug a federal subject of Russia – and just two miles west is Little Diomede which is part of Alaska. Both have small fishing villages, one settled by Russians and the other Americans.If folks are scared by the geographic proximity of 53 miles, two miles must really freak them out? And they’d best be sitting down for this little tidbit…there is no ratified treaty in place between the United States and Russia that enforces this boundary.The last attempts made to negotiate a deal with Russia was in 1991. The person who chaired the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations was none other than Senator Joe Biden from Delaware.Biden addressed the committee with these words,“…today the subcommittee meets to consider a measure that constitutes one small step down that path of cooperation. This measure, the U.S.-Soviet Maritime Boundary Treaty, represents the attempt of the two sides to resolve an important dispute through negotiation, compromise, and mutual pledge to abide by the solemn obligations of a bilateral treaty and international law.”The dispute this treaty would lay to rest concerns the sovereign rights and jurisdiction of the United States and the Soviet Union in the seas between Alaska and Siberia. The treaty would govern each country’s right to manage fisheries and to conduct oil and gas exploration and development in a vast maritime area.”In 1990, then Soviet Union leader, Mikhail Gorbachev sought to resolve the ordeal. But the Russian parliament believed he was acting in haste. The Soviet Union was beginning to crumble and they believed Gorbachev was giving away too much fishing, sea passage, and oil and mineral rights to the United States in exchange for other provisions. The USSR collapsed in December of 1991. This left Biden’s sixth month old efforts under the George H. W. Bush administration unanswered. No administration since has attempted to ratify the treaty and I doubt Putin is in the mood for Biden to resume talks.The area maps referred to as Russian America, a piece of land nearly the size of Texas, is what we now call Alaska. It had already been colonized by Siberian fur trappers in the 1700s and the Russian Orthodox Church was already busy trying to convert Indigenous people to Christianity. By 1800 the Russian-American Company was established – organized by Emperor Paul I of Russia. By 1850, 300,000 sea otters were hunted to extinction. Seventeen years later, in 1867, amidst a fur market slump from over hunting, the end of the U.S. Civil War, a Russia battered by the Crimea war ceded Russian America to the United States as part of the Alaska Purchase. It didn’t become a U.S. state until 1959.Russia sold Alaska to the United States for $7.2 million or $134 million in 2022 dollars. Russia feared they couldn’t defend the territory from the British who were busy trying to colonize Canada and had just defeated the Russians in the Crimea war with the help of the French. So, they expressed interest in selling it to the then U.S. Secretary of State William Seward who had already offered to buy it just a few years prior and was happy to negotiate the purchase.Biden gave reference to the purchase in his Foreign Relations subcommittee pre-amble by joking, “the 1867 Convention, by which Russia ceded Alaska to the United States, made it possible for Mr. Murkowski to become a U.S. Senator.” The Maritime Boundary Agreement this committee aimed resolve, but never did, “these conflicts by: One, declaring that the 1867 Convention line is the maritime boundary between the United States and the Soviet Union; two, establishing a precise geographic description of the line; and three, providing for the transfer of jurisdiction and Russia rights in four special areas.”The first American to map the new state of Alaska may take issue with Biden’s use of the words ‘precise geographic description.’ Land wasn’t the only thing the U.S. got for their $7.2 million, they were also handed maps and charts of the region drafted by Russian mapmakers. These were promptly handed over to the man who was soon to become the head of the Pacific branch of the Office of United States Coast Survey, and premiere geographer of the time, George Davidson.He excelled at geodesy and astronomy coming out of Girard College in 1845. By 1850 he was on the California coast determining accurate latitude and longitude of coastal features. He worked his way up the Pacific coast to Oregon and Washington mapping much of the Puget Sound and naming many of the Olympic Mountains on the Olympic Peninsula. Mt. Ellinor is named after his soon-to-be wife, Ellinor Fauntleroy. The Fauntleroy ferry in Seattle takes you from the Fauntleroy Cove to Vashon Island. Mt. Constance is named after her sister, and the two side-by-side mountains, The Brothers, are named after her two brothers.His triangulation and astronomical observations were regarded as the highest precision geodesy recorded to that date. The baselines required to accurately triangulate and map the Pacific coast states are named after him – the Davidson Quadrilaterals. And before those Russian maps had been handed over to him, he had already been asked to make maps of the physiography and natural resources of Alaska by the U.S. Congress. Most maps were copied from Russian maps and others drawn by an Indigenous Chief who knew more about the land than the Russians. A 1937 biography claims “Davidson always got on with Indians—he treated them as men.” These maps were included in a report to a congressional committee that resulted in a unanimous vote for America to purchase Russian America from the Russians.Davidson was mapping Alaska at 51° to 71° latitude north amidst the mosquitos in August of 1867, but less than a year earlier the Office of Coast Survey had sent Davidson down to 5° to 7° latitude north, in January of 1867, to map a potential site for the Panama Canal.The Office of the Coast Survey was started by Thomas Jefferson in 1807 and still publishes the nautical maps of the U.S. – including the annually published 10 volume publication, United States Coast Pilot. Historically, these guides relied on local mariner knowledge and newspaper articles. They were a practical necessity for private, commercial, and governmental mariners. But in 1858 George Davidson was the first to provide his own accounts making this issue the first official United States Coast Pilot by the Office of the Coast Survey.Davidson went on to become the president of the California Academy of Sciences, a University of California Regent, and the University of California, Berkley’s first geography professor. He was the department chair from 1898 until 1905.Davidson defined the essence of what map making was at the time. It served the desire and need Jefferson had for precision, utilizing the best surveying and geodesic instruments and techniques of the time. Naturally these were used for exacting territories for colonizing, capitalizing, and exploiting. The United States had become an exuberantly expansionist, empire-building country. But by the middle of the 19th century through the start of the 20th another kind of map was entering its golden age – thematic mapping.Thematic maps use information not readily observed but are nonetheless part of the geography. For example, maps depicting the weather or statistical information like demographics. They can also include strategic and political information.The beginning of the 20th century saw the emergence of the United States as a global superpower and the start of the decline of England’s dominance. New territories, like Alaska, were not only getting mapped but were also helping to shift geopolitical dynamics. The world was sufficiently mapped such that world leaders need not send ships afar to determine political strategies.One of the first and most influential of these geopolitical thematic maps came from England’s equivalent of George Davidson, Sir Halford John Mackinder. In 1904 he wrote a paper that included a map in The Geographic Journal called “The Geographical Pivot of History.” In the introduction here he writes,“In 400 years the outline of the map of the world has been completed with approximate accuracy…But the opening of the twentieth century is appropriate as the end of a great historic epoch…The missionary, the conqueror, the farmer, the miner, and, of late, the engineer, have followed so closely in the traveller’s footsteps that the world, in its remote borders, has hardly been revealed before we must chronicle its virtually complete political appropriation.”His map is an oval shaped Mercator projection that puts continental Europe, Africa, and Asia in the middle. Its shape gives it a spherical illusion. The map’s title is The Natural Seats of Power and features three crescent shaped concentric zones. At the center is what he called Pivot Area – which is most of continental Europe, some of Asia and what became the Soviet Union, the next ring is labeled Inner and Marginal Crescent – which is more of Europe, the British Isles and Japan, and furthest from the center are the Lands of Outer or Insular Crescent – which include continental America, most of Africa, and Australia.Part of Mackinder’s goal was to not only illustrate to an island country — that came to power by sea — just how connected the world is by land. He also simplified the complexities of detailed coastal charts and topographic maps into easy to understand centers of power. Timothy Barney, an Associate Professor of Rhetoric and Communications at the University of Richmond (and self-proclaimed map-nerd) wrote in the Routledge Handbook of Mapping and Cartography that, “Mackinder was prefiguring a social, economic, and political shift in the twentieth century towards a globalized world, all on the flat page of the map.”Mackinder would not have known it then, but his ‘Pivot Center’ indeed became the focal point of not one, but two world wars that drew powers from all three of the Natural Seats of Power on his map. But he also put thematic geopolitical mapping at the center. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit interplace.io

Host Jim Fausone and guests: Dr. Samuel Kalush, Vietnam Battalion Surgeon and Bronze and Silver Star RecipientLt. Dustin Picard, NOAA Corps Earth Science Specialists DR. SAM KALUSH – ARMY BATTLION SURGEON IN VIETNAM Dr. Samuel Kalush graduated from medical school in 1966. He was interning at Milwaukee County General in 1966-67 when Uncle Sam came calling. After a month of learning to be a medical officer, he was sent to Vietnam as a battalion surgeon overseeing a squad of 7 medics. He recounts his experiences in multiple firefights and what he learned from those experiences. The NOAA Corps is one of 8 US uniformed services. Its history goes back to 1807 as the civilian Coast Survey, and 1917 as the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps. In 1965 its ancestor Environmental Science Services Administration Corps came about and finally in 1970 it was named the NOAA Corps. Lt. Dustin Picard talks about the history/mission of the Corps, as well as its interesting and important work. The Corps has coordinated with the USCG, U.S. Navy, and other services at times. It supports the mission of NOAA and is today part of Homeland Security. Its missions involve ocean and coast survey work, fisheries compliance, ocean research, and weather aviation. Picard talks with former NOAA Corps officer Lt (j.g.) Jim Fausone.Dr. Sam Kalush

The news that Shell plans to conduct a large-scale offshore seismic survey for gas and oil deposits along the Eastern Cape's Wild Coast has drawn criticism from environmental groups and animal rights activists, with one group even threatening to chain naked 'Wild Women' to the ship in protest. Daron Mann speaks to attorney Kim van Kets from Wild Women on the Run's, and Jason Simpson, a chief engineer for controversial international conservation group Sea Shepard. Shell aims boom guns at Wild Coast

The news that Shell plans to conduct a large-scale offshore seismic survey for gas and oil deposits along the Eastern Cape's Wild Coast has drawn criticism from environmental groups and animal rights activists, with one group even threatening to chain naked 'Wild Women' to the ship in protest. Daron Mann speaks to attorney Kim van Kets from Wild Women on the Run's, and Jason Simpson, a chief engineer for controversial international conservation group Sea Shepard. Shell aims boom guns at Wild Coast

The NOAA Corps is one of 8 US uniformed services. Its history goes back to 1807 as the civilian Coast Survey, and 1917 as the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps. In 1965 its ancestor Environmental Science Services Administration Corps came about and finally in 1970 it was named the NOAA Corps. Lt Dustin Picard talks about the history/mission of the Corps, as well as its interesting and important work. The Corps has coordinated with the USCG, U.S. Navy, and other services at times. It supports the mission of NOAA and is today part of Homeland Security. Its missions involve ocean and coast survey work, fisheries compliance, ocean research, and weather aviation. Picard talks with former NOAA Corps officer Lt (j.g.) Jim Fausone.

NOAA is moving into the digital age by phasing out paper nautical charts over five years. In this episode, we talk with NOAA Corps Capt. EJ Van Den Ameele, chief of Coast Survey's marine chart division, to learn how this transition will affect mariners and why electronic charts offer many advantages over paper. And if you still need paper charts, Coast Survey has you covered. EJ discusses how an online tool called NOAA Custom Chart makes it easy to export printable charts for all maritime areas. Episode permanent link, transcript, and show notes

NOAA's Precision Marine Navigation team is creating new online services to enable more efficient access to the NOAA data that powers private-sector marine navigation products. In this episode, Julia Powell and John Kelley from the Office of Coast Survey share how the team is working to foster innovation, improve navigation safety, aid in more efficient coastal route planning, and help mariners make informed decisions as they navigate our nation's waterways. Episode permanent link and show notes

Rear Admiral Shepard M. Smith is the Coast Survey director for NOAA. As director, Smith is dedicated to advancing the Coast Survey initiatives of modernizing digital charting, increasing use of autonomous systems for hydrography, and improved integrated navigation services for seaports. Rear Adm. Smith serves as a presidentially-appointed member of the Mississippi River Commission that oversees navigation and flood control projects on the largest river system in the United States. Smith also serves as the chair of the International Hydrographic Organization’s (IHO) Council that comprises 30 leading IHO member nations and oversees performance management and the business side of the IHO. Hallmarks of Smith’s career have been his leadership in the modernization of NOAA’s charting systems and transformation of NOAA’s hydrographic technologies. That leadership and experience expands Coast Survey’s data capabilities and supports a data-enabled maritime economy, among other challenges. Smith was commanding officer of NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson, on which he served three tours during his NOAA career. During his latest tour, Smith became NOAA’s first commanding officer to operationalize autonomous surface vehicles for mapping shallow areas previously inaccessible and uncharted. While chief of Coast Survey’s Marine Chart Division, he changed the nation’s charting tradition, established in the 19th century, by restructuring chart production and distribution. This modernization makes U.S. navigational data more accessible to the public through a wider range of electronic formats. Smith holds a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Cornell University and earned a master of science degree in ocean engineering from the University of New Hampshire. He received a direct commission to the rank of ensign in the NOAA Corps in 1993.

In our latest podcast, Allison Wittrock, a cartographer with the Office of Coast Survey, tells us about NOAA’s new digital charts. Episode permanent link and show notes

With the use of unmanned systems, NOAA is reducing operational costs and manpower requirements, while increasing the type and quality of data that NOAA collects. In this episode, Rob Downs from NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey explains the past, present, and possible future of unmanned systems at NOAA. Episode permanent link and show notes

Our June issue makes a splash with the launch of a brand-new Boats and Coast Survey, featuring a fleet of well-navigated reports and fresh photography. It is accompanied by nautical-themed reports throughout the magazine – so we hereby encourage you to drop anchor and meet us on deck. Available now at [The Monocle Shop](https://monocle.com/shop/magazine/other/issue-94/).

Our June issue makes a splash with the launch of a brand-new Boats and Coast Survey, featuring a fleet of well-navigated reports and fresh photography. It is accompanied by nautical-themed reports throughout the magazine – so we hereby encourage you to drop anchor and meet us on deck. Available now at [The Monocle Shop](https://monocle.com/shop/magazine/other/issue-94/).

How do we use sound to 'see' the sea floor? Our latest podcast explains how sonar works and includes a great visualization that shows how sound data is used to make nautical charts. Episode permanent link and show notes

More than 153 years after it was lost in a violent collision at sea, NOAA and partners have identified the wreck of the ship Robert J. Walker, a steamer that served in the U.S. Coast Survey, a predecessor agency of NOAA. Today on Diving Deeper, join the Office of Coast Survey's Vitad Pradith and Office of National Marine Sanctuaries' James Delgado as they describe their journey to find the Walker. Episode permanent link and show notes

Tune into today's Diving Deeper for a conversation with Rear Admiral Gerd Glang as we discuss World Hydrography Day, some history on NOAA's Office of Coast Survey, and the tragic sinking of the Coast Survey vessel Robert J. Walker. Episode permanent link and show notes

In celebration of World Hydrography Day, today’s Diving Deeper podcast explores the role of the Office of Coast Survey for safe navigation of our nation's waters. Join us for this interview with Rachel Medley from the Office of Coast Survey.

Learn about why we archive nautical charts and maps in this interview with Meredith Westington from NOAA's Office of Coast Survey.

We have three stories for you this week. First, we take a look at NOAA's Historical Hurricane Tracks, a website that lets anyone track and map historical tropical cyclone activity from 1851-2009. Then, we head to Canada where Office of Coast Survey officials met with other nations that share an Arctic boundary to form a new commission focused on creating better nautical charts for the region. Finally, we head out into the Pacific to point out some new ocean observing tools now available in Hawaii.

Navigation response teams are three-person mobile emergency response units equipped and trained to survey waterways immediately following a hurricane. Learn more about NOAA's navigation response teams in this interview with Commander Larry Krepp from NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey.

A High Tide Mystery off the Atlantic Coast: NOAA's Tides and Currents office is investigating the causes behind an unusually high tide in June that stretched from Maine to Florida. nowCOAST: An online interactive map from NOAA's Office of Coast Survey provides an amazing amount of near real-time weather forecasts and ocean surface observations for all of the U.S. Texas Wetlands Restoration Project Completed: NOAA's Damage Assessment, Remediation and Restoration Program just completed shepherding a major coastal restoration project -- over 2,500 acres of wetlands -- near Port Arthur, Texas.

Learn about hydrography in this interview with Jerry Mills from the Office of Coast Survey. The discussion highlights why hydrography is important, the tools used to collect hydrographic data, and how it is used.

Learn about nautical charts in this interview with Tom Loeper from the Office of Coast Survey. The discussion highlights the importance of nautical charts, how they are developed, and the many people who use these charts every day.