Depth Charts released

Charles River Community:

CRAB is proud to announce that we are releasing the depth charts of the Charles River to the public.  They can be found at www.CharlesRiverAllianceofBoaters.org/chart.org.  This project would not have been possible without the participation and generous support of our partner, the MIT Sea Grant College Program. 

Further in-kind support was provided by the MIT Sailing Pavilion and the Massachusetts Bay National Estuary Program.  The initial funding was provided by the Boston Duck Tours, the Head of the Charles Regatta, Newton Yacht Club, Riverside Boat Club, Union Boat Club, Community Rowing, and Community Boating.  Further funding was provided by Northeastern University Rowing, the Charles River Conservancy, and several generous individuals. 

We have created five versions of the chart for your use:

     Wall Chart (24"x36") that is intended to be displayed in every boathouse on the river. 

     Chart Booklet similar to a traditional NOAA chart booklet with 13 detailed charts

     ArcGIS online chart
     Google Map

     Google Earth

We plan to provide wall charts to every donor of $500 or more.  We also plan to have both the wall chart and the chart booklet for sale shortly.  The chart booklet can also be easily printed at home or work.  The Google Earth kmz file can be used to import the data into navigational equipment. 

These charts were warmly received by the regional office of the EPA, the DCR, the State Police Marine Unit, the USGS, and the US Army Corp of Engineers, in briefings that we had with them this winter. 

If you would like to contribute to the project, there are links to do so on the CRAB web site.  As we enter our second year of this project, we are planning to map the handful of shallow areas that we were unable to do last season, to do more detailed survey work near and under the bridges, and do detailed comparisons to depth surveys that have been done in the past in order to quantify how the river has been changing over time.

While the scope of this work is much smaller than our first year, we still need your support.  Our partners at MIT Sea Grant depend on federal funding and are currently zero-funded in the draft budget of President Trump, so their situation for the coming year and beyond is precarious.  While MIT Sea Grant was able to generously support the project last year, CRAB is going to have to make a bigger financial contribution this year.  I am asking that every boat house, marina, and club to generously support the Chart Project, and to ask their members to support the project.  We are the people that will benefit from this project and it is only appropriate that we help to pay for it.  Please contribute to the project at www.CharlesRiverAllianceofBoaters.org/chart.org.

Carl Zimba

Charles River Alliance of Boaters
www.CharlesRiverAllianceofBoaters.org/chart.org