What is Notice to Mariners?

A Notice to Mariners publication informs mariners of important navigational safety matters affecting Canadian Waters. Notices to Mariners are continuous means employed by the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG), to promulgate information required by the master, pilot or person in charge of the navigation of a vessel, as well as other interested parties. The Notices to Mariners contain the necessary information to ensure that nautical charts, Sailing Directions, List of Lights, Annual Edition of Notices to Mariners and Radio Aids to Marine Navigation publications are kept up-to-date. Mariners are also informed of the enactment of regulations and the establishment of procedures governing vessel entry into and transit in Canadian waters.

This electronic publication is published on a monthly basis and is prepared jointly with the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) and the Canadian Hydrographic Services (CHS). The information in the Notice to Mariners is formatted to simplify the correction of paper charts and nautical publications, which are listed above.

The NOTMAR web site is a free 24/7 service. It provides mariners with a quick and easy to use interface to access Notices to Mariners information. This system also generates weekly and monthly notification mailers, for its registered users. These on-line mail services provides the monthly Notices to Mariners publications as well as the weekly (Section 2: Chart Corrections) notices that advise the mariner of the notices that have been issued against their chart selections. These mail services simplify the process for our registered clients to update their publications and charts as required under the Canada Shipping Act.

The NOTMAR web site also includes the historical Chart corrections and historical Sailing Direction corrections; as well, it provides access to downloadable Chart Patches, contains links to CHS's Chart Number 1, instructions for applying Notices to mariners to manually update your paper charts and other useful information.