Speakers

Emergency Services on the Water: How the US Coast Guard manages and oversees search and rescue missions

Three US Coast Guard officers from Sector Maryland-National Capital Region will describe how collectively the Coast Guard manages and oversees the whole of government search and rescue missions, including the use and reliance on local, county, and state assets.

• CDR Baxter B. Smoak, Head, Prevention Department
• CDR Rob Concepcion, Chief of Response
• LT Stasia Ellis, Command Center Chief

The Zoom link will be posted on the home page one week before the program.

Watchful Eyes on the Key Bridge: The Unfolding of a Timeline

Speaker: Mike Singer, Founder of the Facebook group “Baltimore and Chesapeake Bay Ship Watchers” 

Imagine waking up on Tuesday morning March 26, 2024 and finding out that your video is now the most famous clip in the world. Mike Singer is the founder of the Facebook group “Baltimore and Chesapeake Bay Ship Watchers,” whose livestream video captured the last minutes of the Dali's voyage. Mike will share the history of the group and the timeline of events associated with the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse. 

The Zoom link will be posted on the home page a week before the program.

Speaker: Ryan Wartick, Navigation Manager, Mid-Atlantic, NOAA Office of Coast Survey

Are you aware that NOAA’s raster nautical charts are expected to be phased out by January 2025? Whether you are a regular user of NOAA paper charts or depend on your electronic chart plotter, you should be aware of important changes underway at NOAA regarding how they produce and distribute navigation information. Ryan Wartick, a veteran of Navy and NOAA Corps Sea Service, will present the transition from paper to electronic navigation charts (ENCs), including how underlying hydrographic data is supplied to current chart plotters and how that data will continue to be the basis for alternate sources of paper charts. 

The Zoom link will be posted on the home page one week before the program.