June 4, 2020 - The Sector for Hydrography and Oceanography (SHO) of the Institute of Hydrometeorology and Seismology of Montenegro (ZHMS) has prepared a new nautical chart of the Bay of Kotor, which was made available to boaters on the market several days ago.
It is a nautical chart with a scale of 1: 25,000, which, in addition to the cartographic presentation of the entire waters of the Boka Bay, also contains two smaller, so-called map-plans of the two newest marinas in Boka - Lazure marina in Meljine, and Portonovi in Kumbor.
"The new nautical chart "Boka 25" contains all changes and additions as of March 1 this year. Besides the latest data on the change of the coastline and waters, in the intervening period new marinas have been built in Meljine and Kumbor. Data from hydrographic surveys performed during recent years have therefore been entered and updated. The map has been updated with all submarine installations - pipelines, outlets, electrical and communication cables laid at the bottom of the bay, based on control surveys with the participation of teams from the Naval Detachment of Montenegro and the Sector for Hydrography and Oceanography," Director of ZHMS Luka Mitrović stated in an interview with Daily "Vijesti". He pointed out that SHO and ZHMS have meanwhile signed an exclusive memorandum on business and technical cooperation with the Hydrographic Institute of the Italian Navy (IIM) from Genoa, as well as having excellent collaboration with the Croatian Hydrographic Institute from Split.
According to Deputy Director Radovan Kandic, the new nautical chart "Boka 25" enables its users to transfer all positions obtained with the help of satellite navigation systems such as GPS directly to the map, which had previously not been possible.
"Since the Bay of Kotor is the busiest part of the Montenegrin waters for maritime traffic, we have made a new and up-to-date map that is ready for the start of the yachting season. One edition has already been printed and will be available in the UNA Montenegro naval stores along the coast. We have the option of producing a map at the special request of users, "said Master of Hydrography, Corvette Captain Branislav Gloginja, Navy Officer Montenegro, who is also Chief Hydrographer with the SHO.
"At a meeting of representatives from ZHMS, IIM and the Ministry of Defense of Montenegro it was agreed to organize a visit to Montenegro of a smaller hydrographic ship in the last quarter of this year. The ship will stay in our waters for ten days, during which our experts, together with our Italian counterparts, will perform detailed hydrographic surveys of several sections of our territorial sea and inland waters. The data collected will be used both for our Ministry of Defense and Navy, and for updating nautical charts," said Gloginja.
Using a specially equipped hydrographic boat CHH-1 and other smaller vessels for shallow areas, Gloginja and other SHO experts are currently performing detailed hydrographic surveys of a total of 14 smaller ports in Boka Bay and the open sea coast, to be used by Morsko Dobro.
SHO is preparing and issuing a new publication of "Pilot" for sailing in the Montenegrin part of the southern Adriatic, with all the necessary information for sailors on the waters, coast, descriptions of ports and marinas, prevailing meteorological and oceanographic conditions, and rules and advice for navigating our territorial and internal maritime waters.
The current "Pilot" was produced in 2013, and therefore the need had arisen for an updated version and for a new such publication, which is used by all foreign sailors of yachts and large merchant ships that sail into our waters.
"In cooperation with the Agency for Nature Protection and the Institute of Marine Biology, we are mapping areas along the coast of Montenegro underneath the protected valuable algae Posidonia Oceanica. We will measure and map the seabed zones under that algae in the seabeds of Kruč, Stari Ulcinj, and the waters around Petrovac, with side scan sonar and depth gauges," said Mitrović.
Text by Siniša Luković
