Are there reliable charts of the offshore waters of Trinidad and Tobago?
The current charts issued by the Hydrographic Unit of the Lands and Surveys Division date from the late 1980s. As detailed above the past ten years has seen a dramatic change in technology and acquisition methods concerning classical hydrographic surveying for this purpose. The methodologies of both acquisition and production as well as the levels of accuracy and completeness have all changed. During this period the number and size of cargoes passing through Trinidad and Tobago territorial and coastal waters have increased dramatically. The nature of their cargoes has also changed, with a significant increase in the number of environmentally sensitive if not hazardous cargoes. There has also been a significant increase in the number of dredging operations as well as coastal developments concerned with development of the Chaguaramas area as well as others in Port of Spain and the Gulf of Paria generally. Off the west coast there have been significant infrastructure developments in suppo
