Crowdsourced Bathymetry: help improve charts for everyone

Every trip you take with a connected depth sounder can help make nautical charts more accurate, not just for you, but for every mariner who comes after. Aqua Map lets you participate directly in the Crowdsourced Bathymetry Initiative, run by the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO), aimed at keeping chart data more current and more accurate over time.

Turn this feature on, and Aqua Map records your vessel's position along with depth readings from your depth sounder, then transmits that data to the IHO server through NOAA.

There are two conditions for this to work: your depth sounder needs to be connected to Aqua Map through a Wi-Fi Connection, and to avoid eating into your mobile data, accumulated data only gets transmitted once your device connects to a WiFi network.

Crowdsourced Bathymetry settings

You'll find these settings from the main Settings page, where you can opt in to contribute to the project.

All data recorded and shared through this feature is released under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication license, meaning it becomes freely available to anyone working to improve navigational charts.

If you'd rather not share identifying details about your boat, like MMSI or boat name, you can turn on "Send data anonymously" and contribute without attaching any of that information.