Hydrographer

An Hydrographer is a surveyer of oceans, seas, bays and estuaries. They are somewhat related to the Polar scientist. Hydrographers look at the sea floor, the coastlines, the currents and tides. They are the mapmakers of the maritime world, which they call charts.

They are employed with both navies and coastguards to measure, record, and chart waters that are of interest to that nation. Sometimes only the coast, other times the whole world. But also commercial companies looking for oil or minerals on the ocean floor employ hydrographers.

To explore the seas hydrographers use a hydrographic survey vessel. Small boats or ships, usually very manoeuvrable with a shallow draft, and packed to the rim with measuring equipment. Ranging from the old-fashioned sounding line (A weight on the end of a rope.) and sextant, to three-dimensional scanning SONARs, buoys (such as ODAS) and RADAR and several kinds of Satelite Navigation.