EarthNC » Fishing and Dive Sites

Gulf of Mexico Lease Block Charts

EarthNC — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:02:50 +0000

Lease Block charts are a common tool for offshore fishing.

Our new EarthNC Chartviewer features the full set of Gulf Lease Block charts for free online viewing. Here are direct links to each of the charts:

- Chart 1113A – Lease Block for Havana to Tampa Bay
- Chart 1114A – Lease Block for Tampa to Cape San Blas
- Chart 1115A – Lease Block for Cape St George to the Mississippi Passes
- Chart 1116A – Lease Block for the Mississippi River to Galveston
- Chart 1117A – Lease Block Galveston to the Rio Grande

Use our Route Maker tool under ‘Routing’ to generate waypoints you can export to KML, GPX, or a print out.

For offline use with GPS integration, EarthNC offers a full set of lease block charts for Google Earth on our EartNC Raster Southest DVD. Most offline users will also want our EarthNC Plus vector charts and GooPs Pro GPS to Google Earth software. The EarthNC Plus vector charts include charted pipelines and offshore platforms which are also great resources for finding fish.

Florida Permitted Artificial Reef Locations

EarthNC — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:53:05 +0000

Looking for a fishing or dive spot off the Florida coast? EarthNC has created a new map of permitted artificial reef locations based on data maintained by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). It contains over 2200 individual sites.

Included Reef Information with Most Sites:

Site Name
Deployment Date
Construction Material
Depth
Dimensions (length, width, height, approximate volume)

Each reef site also has a unique ‘submit information’ link so that users can contribute more information to share with other boaters.

Try it Out

Click Here to open the EarthNC Florida Permitted Artificial Reefs Map in Google Earth. To combine reef information with Online Nautical charts including buoys, markers, and lights, try our free EarthNC Online service.

Need Google Earth? Download it free HERE!

Pensacola Dives Sites and Fishing Spots from MTB Divers

EarthNC — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:06:41 +0000

Looking for new dive or fishing sites near Pensacola, Florida?

We’ve created a Google Earth map showing the location of many reefs, wrecks based on the public divesite database provided by MTB Divers a Pensacola Dive Shop. Points of interest run the gamut from small concrete fish havens to tanks to ships. Most points of interest include a short reef/wreck description and depth.

Try it Out!
To use the MTB Divers Dive Sites map, you need to have installed Google Earth 4.2 or higher. If you don’t have Google Earth, get it HERE free.

Click HERE to load the EarthNC MTB Divers Pensacola Dive Sites Map in Google Earth.

View Gulf Coast Navigation Charts with EarthNC Online
Our EarthNC Online Chart and Map Service offers limited versions of NOAA and Army Corps Nautical Charts for Google Earth, which include the waters off Pensacola, Florida.

If you’re looking for full navigation charts for the Gulf Coast, consider EarthNC Plus Vector Charts and EarthNC Raster Charts for Google Earth.

USS Oriskany and Other 3D Ocean Models

EarthNC — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 16:27:51 +0000

Quickly following up on their new 3D Ocean Floor in Google Earth 5.0, Google has been populating the ocean with a unique set of 3D models of famous shipwrecks, reefs, and other objects. To tour these models, you can open the 3D Ocean Models Tour.

Near and dear to EarthNC’s heart is the included model for the USS Oriskany Aircraft Carrier that was sunk off the coast of Northwest Florida in May of 2006. We watched the sinking 1st hand from our 28′ Regal cruiser 27 miles offshore from our home port of Fort Walton Beach Florida. Our coverage of the sinking was the first major story of our new boating blog DestinSharks.com and eventually led to the founding of EarthNC two years ago to market Nautical Products for Google Earth.

To commemorate the new 3D Oriskany model, we’ve published our own special Sinking of the USS Oriskany KML file for Google Earth. Our KML includes the embedded video of the sinking, the ‘official’ location of the Oriskany as provided by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and our boat’s GPS track while filming.

If you plan to visit the USS Oriskany by boat, we recommend you not use the 3D model location as it appears to be off by nearly a mile from the published location. The model is quite realistic, but has a couple of minor errors. The hangar elevators where removed prior to sinking and the large radar dome on the aft island superstructure floated free during the sinking.

NOAA Automated Wrecks and Obstructions Information System (AWOIS) for Google Earth

EarthNC — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 12:51:26 +0000

With over 13,000 listed wrecks and obstructions, the NOAA Automated Wreck and Obstruction Information System is a great resource for fishermen and divers. Many wrecks include extensive historical notes including ship/obstruction type, reported loss dates, location accuracy, results of surveys to locate the objects, and more. To better explore the AWOIS database, we’ve created a Google Earth version.

For ease of viewing in Google Earth, we’ve built our AWOIS Google Earth map to automatically load in 3×3 degree areas as you zoom in along the coasts.

Look for the purple EarthNC Wreck Icon which marks the center of each zone with wreck information. Zoom in on these areas and you’ll see the wrecks and obstructions appear automatically.

Named wrecks are shown using the purple wreck icon . Unnamed wrecks and other obstructions are marked with yellow circles . Click on any wreck or obstruction to pull up the NOAA summary detail or right click and select ‘Properties’ to see the coordinates. You can use the EarthNC AWOIS layer in conjunction with our Trip and Route Tool to export coordinates to your GPS.

Try it Out!
To use the EarthNC AWOIS map, you need to have installed Google Earth 4.2 or higher. If you don’t have Google Earth, get it HERE free.

Click HERE to load the EarthNC AWOIS Wrecks and Obstructions Map in Google Earth.

Add Navigation Charts, Weather, Tides, and More to Google Earth with EarthNC Online
Our EarthNC Online Chart and Map Service offers limited versions of NOAA and Army Corps Nautical Charts for Google Earth, along with a large library of weather, tide, and other point of interest layers for boaters, fishermen, and divers. Check out our other fishing and dive site maps HERE, they’re all available in EarthNC Online.

If you’re looking for full navigation charts and low-cost PC based Chart Plotting, consider EarthNC Plus Vector Charts and EarthNC Raster Charts for Google Earth. We will be creating a special version of the AWOIS map for our Plus/Raster users, suitable for offline use while boating, in the near future.

NOAA Gulf of Mexico Marine Debris Google Earth Map

EarthNC — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:28:58 +0000

The NOAA Gulf of Mexico Marine Debris Program has been actively surveying coastal areas of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana since 2006 to locate hurricane debris that might pose a hazard to navigation. During this process, they have amassed an impressive list of verified bottom structure, complete with depth, length, width, and height information. As a service to our EarthNC subscribers, we’ve created a Google Earth version of their latest data release (September 2007). With EarthNC and Google Earth, you can easily determine the coordinates of each point and pull up size information. While the accuracy of this dataset is likely quite good relative to other sources, it is of course, Not For Navigation.

Coverage Extent and Format
Click on either the Google Earth screen shot above or NOAA Survey Area map below to see the current coverage area for the Marine Surveys. For the EarthNC rendition, we’ve colored the border of each debris point to indicate charted depth. Red is less than 10′, Orange, 10′-20′, and Green greater than 20′. The size of the icon is a relative indication of the total estimated area of the debris. To obtain the latitude/longitude of a debris location, right click and select ‘Properties’.

Try it Out!
To use the EarthNC NOAA Gulf of Mexico Marine Debris Map you need to have installed Google Earth 4.2 or higher. If you don’t have Google Earth, get it HERE free.

View the Full Map with EarthNC Online
Our EarthNC Online Chart and Map Service includes the full version of the Gulf of Mexico Marine Debris Map. After loading the core EarthNC Online in Google Earth, scroll down in the Google Earth ‘Places’ menu and find the entry for ‘NOAA Gulf Coast Marine Debris Map’ in the Fishing and Dive Sites Folder. Click on the checkbox to the left of the NOAA layer and the map will load.

EarthNC Online offers limited versions of NOAA and Army Corps Nautical Charts for Google Earth along with a large and growing library of nautical weather, point of interest, and other mapping layers for use by boaters and water enthusiasts.

Try Our Sample Gulf of Mexico Marine Debris Map
Click HERE to load a sample of the EarthNC Marine Debris map. The sample covers a single ‘zone’ from the full dataset.

If you’re looking for full navigation charts for the Gulf Coast compatible with our Marine Debris Map, consider EarthNC Plus Vector Charts and EarthNC Raster Charts for Google Earth.

Emerald Coast Reef Association Public Reefs for Google Earth

EarthNC — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:57:14 +0000

Looking for new dive or fishing sites in the emerald waters near Destin, Florida?

We’ve created a Google Earth map showing the location of many reefs, wrecks based on the public reef database provided by the Emerald Coast Reef Association. Points of interest run the gamut from small concrete fish havens to tanks to an old WWII liberty ship. Most points of interest include a short reef/wreck description, depth and extent information, and notes.

Try it Out!
To use the Emerald Coast Reef Association map, you need to have installed Google Earth 4.2 or higher. If you don’t have Google Earth, get it HERE free.

Click HERE to load the EarthNC Emerald Coast Reef Association Public Reefs Map in Google Earth.

If you’re looking for full navigation charts for the Gulf Coast, consider EarthNC Plus Vector Charts and EarthNC Raster Charts for Google Earth.