Australasian Hydrographic Society (AHS)

News
The Australasian Hydrographic Society congratulates the Australian Hydrographic Service on achieving a milestone on 26th August 2005, when it was certified as a ‘Quality Endorsed Company’ under ISO 9001:2000. The service has been certified for the production and distribution of nautical charting products and services and the support provided to its Hydrographic Survey Force (HSF) to enable data acquisition. The intention is to expand upon this initial achievement and develop the quality management system further to incorporate the Direct-orate of Oceanography and Meteorology (DOM), as well as data acquisition at sea in the ships of the HSF.

NZ Region
At the conclusion of the NZR AGM on 12th October 2005, a day seminar was held at the University of Otago, Dunedin on the theme of ‘Foreshore and Coast’, in conjunction with the New Zealand Institute of Surveyors conference that took place in Dunedin from 13 - 15 October. Response from the hydrographic community was strong for both the AGM and the seminar, with 28 guests present at the lunch following the AGM, and forty attendees at the seminar. Presentations included one by Derek Goring of Mulgor Consulting Ltd, entitled ‘What’s the use of tide-gauge data?’ Maurice Perwick, Eliot Sinclair Ltd, spoke on ‘The Hydro-grapher and Dredging Operations’. Mike Denham, University of Otago gave an address on ‘Squat predictions for the KAKARIKI in Otago Harbour’. Brad Scarfe, University of Waikato, gave an ‘Overview of the Coastal Marine Group’s hydrographic surveying methods’. Ian Wright, NIWA, talked about ‘Multi-beam Mapping for Marine Environment Management’ and Maurice Duncan, NIWA, on ‘Clutha River flood plain Lidar survey and channel’. Presentations were all of very high quality; some included most descriptive graphics based on very large survey datasets.
There were several presentations of interest in the visualisation arena. These included a fly-through of Lake Tarawera, views of undersea lavaflows on a newly discovered seamount in lat 35°, and images of a newly discovered geological fault-line running through Cook Strait which apparently raises the earthquake risk by 10% for the country's capital, Wellington. There were also high-resolution Lidar images in conjunction with flood plain modelling.
The keynote address from Jerome Sheppard of LINZ Hydrographic Office set the scene for the government's position on the intended research planned for NZ's extended waters, when he described the need for ocean survey and presented a strategy for approaching the task of gathering information from within NZ's maritime jurisdiction. The initial estimate of the cost of merely a reconnaissance survey strategy is NZ$280 million; however, there is no budget committed by the NZ Government at present. The hydrographic community is nevertheless encouraged to position themselves to take advantage of an ocean-survey strategy that is expected to gain momentum as the issue of resource mapping continues to be advanced by a wide consortium of interests and organisations in New Zealand.
The gathering at the seminar represented a broad spectrum of the hydrographic community as it included students, bright new entrants to the profession and seasoned professionals, who all derived much benefit. Not the least of this resulted from the very gratifying liaison between Otago and Waikato Universities. This facilitated students from the Otago Cat A Course in the southern reaches of the South Island travelling to the North Island to gain hands-on experience in multi-beam calibration of vessels in the adjacent Port Tauranga.

East Australia Region
The Sydney Ports Corporation was host to the EAR for its Annual General Meeting on 8th November 2005. The incumbent officers were re-elected, namely, chairman John Maschke, hon. secretary David Garforth and hon. treasurer Roger Harvey. The chairman brought us up to date on AHS and IFHS matters. Two significant items were reported. Firstly, that a draft MOU between the IFHS and IHB/IHO was currently under active consideration. Secondly, the EAR has formed a small planning committee (Events Planning Committee) to give assistance to organisations planning hydrographic and related events in which the AHS is also involved. Examples of this co-operative approach include the planning of Australian participation in the joint Dutch/Australian AOTM Commemoration in 2006, and the joint Hydro 2007/RAN Hydrographic Symposium to be held in Cairns, Queensland, in September 2007.

AHS/AHA
It was reported that a proposal for formal affiliation with AHS will be put to members of the Australian Hydrographic Association, essentially our freshwater colleagues, at their AGM scheduled for 10th December 2005.

Contact
Australasian Hydrographic Society
Att. E. R. Whitmore
4/6 Carrington Street
Wahroonga, New South Wales
2076
Australia
Tel: +61 2 94892091
Fax: +61 2 94892048