FIND OUT MORE... LINZ's Role in Charts, Tides & Navigation

LINZ is the government agency responsible for producing official hydrographic information. Hydrography is the science of surveying and mapping the sea floor and coastlines.

We produce official New Zealand charts, tide tables, Notices to Mariners (NTMs), the light list and other information mariners need for safe navigation. The information is constantly updated because maritime features are changing all the time.

LINZ supports the work of Maritime NZ and Coastguard New Zealand by providing professional and recreational mariners with accurate and up-to-date navigation information.

Who uses LINZ's information?

Among those who use our products and services are:

• charter, ferry and container ship operators
• New Zealand Navy, Search and Rescue and Coastguard vessels
• harbour masters and port companies
• research and fishing craft
• captains and owners of leisure yachts and foreign ships in New Zealand waters.

What LINZ does

As well as providing updates and corrections to official paper charts, LINZ undertakes hydrographic surveys to continually improve our data and provide an accurate description of New Zealand's seabed, coastline and hazards.

We use this and other information provided by port authorities and territorial and local authorities to produce:

• official charts showing the location of marine features such as buoys, lights and lighthouses, rocks and sandbanks, and how deep the water is. The charts are listed in the Chart Catalogue
• the annual Nautical Almanac for New Zealand waters, which includes:
  • a list of navigational lights
  • maritime safety information, including contact details for New Zealand harbour masters and port operators
  • information on maritime boundaries
  • astronomical information
  • daily tide tables predicting the times and heights of high and low waters at the main New Zealand ports, and water flows for the tidal streams in the Tory Channel and French Pass. Calculations are also provided for working out the tide movements in smaller ports
• updates and corrections to charts "Notices to Mariners" which are issued each fortnight. They update the information shown in the charts and Nautical Almanac (for example, a light might have been extinguished, a new sandbank may have emerged, or a buoy may have been moved). They also tell you when a new chart has been released.

Our products and services meet International Maritime Organization and International Hydrographic Organisation standards, and are available either as paper copies from chart retailers or as digital charts.

Other maritime information

For more New Zealand maritime information, visit these sites: