The
Navy's hydrographic activities go back to the Royal Ceylon Navy time. The
British Royal Navy introduced the subject & continued on re-surveys
in the early days, some of those data are still used in present day charts.
The first recorded
survey by the Ceylon Navy was in 1962/1963 when the Navy under took hydrographic
surveys for the Pulmudai Mineral Sand Corporation using conventional means.
The data collected was used for the nautical charting
as well as for the construction of the pier
and approaches to it. In 1967 Navy started to send officers for the Basic
Hydrographiccourse in Indian National Hydrographic
School, which was at Cochin at that time. The Naval Hydrographic Branch
was established on 19th January 1970, and the first officer
to head it was then Lieutenant
Justin Jayasooriya, who later rose to become the Chief of Staff.
The Naval Hydrographic
Branch was involved heavily in Delineation of the maritime boundary between
India & Sri Lanka in 1972 and some of those technical issues observed
by the Indian Hydrographers (Head by then Commander
Frazer of theNavy)
were later used in making the 1982 UNCLOS & subsequent TALOS. Indian
On 13th March
1984, as a national effort, the National Hydrographic
Office (NHO) was established under the National Aquatic Resources Agencies
(NARA) with the Navy's hydrographic equipments, and
the Navy as a partner to head the Operational branch.
Today, the Navy had re-activated
the hydrographic capabilities in an integrated approach, which will be
beneficial to the nation. The Navy intends to extend its expertise to
institutions like universities, Telecom & Petroleum Corporation thus
pooling the resources for better productively.
