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FYI, here's the NYT take on the QE2 grounding:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CEEDA153FF937A2575BC0A964958260

Cheers,
Rick

On Nov 3, 7:47 pm, Lu Abel  wrote:
> Peter Fogg wrote:
> > Lu continues:
> > Consider then the crudeness of our charting capabilities.   Satellites
> > can't spot stuff below the water like they can above the water.   Side
> > scan sonar is great -- if you've got the time and money to scan the
> > ocean a few hundred yards at a swath.  Bottom line:  we really don't
> > know what's out there in the great oceans.
>
> > Response:
> > Although this is changing, at least in our waters.  Australia claims a
> > vast swathe of underwater territory (in the guise of 'economic
> > interest') and has set about charting this realm in a systematic way.
> > All sorts of interesting  things are bobbing to the surface .. of our
> > understanding.
>
> There's more than that, too.  It's one thing to slash the bottom of the
> QE II, quite another to do it to the bottom of an oil tanker or to an
> LNG tanker.  On more and more charts, I'm seeing symbols for channels
> where commercial ships operate having been swept for obstacles by drags,
> rather than merely having been scanned with sonar.   It's interesting to
> look at the chart for that particular region -- whilst there's one tiny
> region where surveys date back a century, most of the shallower areas
> transited by commercial ships have been charted with side-scan sonar
> since the QE II incident.
>
> If anyone wants to take a look for him/herself, here's the image of the
> chart:  http://www.charts.noaa.gov/OnLineViewer/13218.shtml
>
> There are a westward running string of islands eminating in the
> northeastern corner of the chart, off the western tip of the westernmost
> island is Sow and Pigs Reef, the QE II was sailing just south of that
> and I rather suspect some of the shallower rocks are recent discoveries.
>
> We have people from all around the world on this list and since I gave a
> weblink above, I'd like to mention that all charts of the US are
> available for on-line viewing.   Starting point 
ishttp://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/mcd/OnLineViewer.html
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