Detailed charts and maps.

[CelticRavenVA]

Where does one go to get detailed maps of the sea floor? Looking to get detailed maps of the bahamas and other areas around it. I looked at the NOAA site but haven't had much luck finding what I need. Anyone here able to help out on this?

 

[archman]

coastal bathymetry maps you pick up at your local fishing store. I'm sure you can find them online if you're not "in" the local area.

http://www.digitalocean.ca/DigitalOceanE-Store/RecPC.asp?Seg=4&group=WPCMTCK

If you want something in deeper water, that's more difficult. The best of those belong to the Navy or petroleum industry, and are usually proprietary. NOAA should have some cruder charts however, at least with 100m curves. After all, deepwater fishermen have to use something...
Really detailed deepwater maps usually require a huge mess of side scane sonar passes, which is not cheap. Only a tiny fraction of the seafloor is mapped like this, except for what the U.S. Navy has locked up.

 

[100days-a-year]

One of the online map sites has all you seek,I think it was Maptech.The Link is on the Saltwatersportsman website.Coastal bathymetry with 1 meter resolution .

 

[DennisS]

Have you checked out British Admiralty charts? They do the charting for Great Britain, while NOAA does it for the US. Bahamas used to be a British colony so that may be the way to go. How detailed are you looking for. There are also cruising gudies that have aerial photographs.

 

[CelticRavenVA]

http://www.digitalocean.ca/DigitalOceanE-Store/RecPC.asp?Seg=4&group=WPCMTCK

Looks like very close to what I am looking for, but at those prices I hope they come with a pants down spanking. Sigh, we can download maps of every inch of the US (and many other countries) but can't get underwater charts ....

 

[Don Burke]

Looks like very close to what I am looking for, but at those prices I hope they come with a pants down spanking. Sigh, we can download maps of every inch of the US (and many other countries) but can't get underwater charts ....

That's because the maps you can get for land are mainly of things people built and the rest can be filled in with aircraft surveys.

The ocean is mainly natural features with some human intervention by people who may not have known where they were. All of this is obscured by water. Most people are surprised to find out how much bathymetry dates from before 1930.

Another factor is that governments have a vested interest in getting people to use the roads. That isn't true for coastal features. Aside from some selected areas, very few governments are too concerned with what is deeper than about fifty feet. In those selected areas, there are often national security issues.

 

[Lat. Adjustment]

Try http://www.marineplanner.com/index.cfm drop down route planner, smart charts and then click on the area you want, it will bring up a list of charts, pick a fine scale, you can zoom on the area of interest like mapquest then save to your computer, I think the default is a GIF but if you save it as a BMP then you can add details with MS Paint.

 

[SA Boy]

Normally I would say that Admiralty Charts are the way to go.

You can find their website at http://www.admiraltyleisure.co.uk/.

However, they have only one standard chart listing the Bahamas - scale 1:3,500,000.
Chart number 4403 issued in 2003