As a courtesy to our audience, Maritime Commons will provide a daily compilation of nationally-relevant Federal Register Notices, or those notices that may impact a large segment of our readers. To provide comments for the public record, follow the Federal Register link for each individual notice. Please note, the Coast Guard cannot respond to comments on these notices outside of the Federal Register.

The Coast Guard announced in the Federal Register the availability of Navigation and Vessel Inspection Circular (NVIC) 01-16 Change 2, “Use of Electronic Charts and Publications in Lieu of Paper Charts, Maps and Publications,” together with a Deregulatory Savings Analysis. This NVIC provides that U.S. vessels may access navigation publications electronically, through underway connectivity, to meet domestic carriage and Safety of Life at Sea certification requirements.

The Coast Guard views public participation as essential to making effective policy, and will consider all comments and material received during the comment period. Your comment can help shape the final form of this policy. You may submit comments identified by docket number USCG-2019-0346 using the Federal eRulemaking Portal at https://www.regulations.gov. Comments and related material must be received by the Coast Guard on or before November 4, 2019.

This update is in response to recommendations from the Navigation Safety Advisory Council and the public. Currently, the Coast Guard, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency are providing marine safety information in an updated electronic format, some of which is now graphical and geographically selectable. Electronic devices (both hardware and software) have improved such that a mariner can efficiently access navigation publications when needed.

For full details, view the Federal Register Notice.

Please address questions or feedback concerning this policy to George H. Detweiler, Office of Navigation Systems, Coast Guard; telephone 202-372-1566, email cgnav@uscg.mil.

This blog is not a replacement or substitute for the formal posting of regulations and updates or existing processes for receiving formal feedback of the same. Links provided on this blog will direct the reader to official source documents, such as the Federal Register, Homeport and the Code of Federal Regulations. These documents remain the official source for regulatory information published by the Coast Guard.