Bathymetry Maps?

[Have Blue]

Hi
I'm new to Spearfishing and am interedted in finding good places to hunt. However without getting into the water with decent visibility I cannot find the reefs / rocks where the fish will live. :head

I could go to a beach and find nothing but a barren sandy wasteland, BUT if I had continued to swim out a further xx metres I may find a lovely reef!

This is a massive stab in the dark but are there any bathymetry (like topography but for underwater) maps for shallow / coastal water?? I guess fishing boats would have such information (although sonar would do the job).

Basically I would love to sit here at my desk and plot interesting places to go explore but I think that would be a bit too good to be true as the data would have to be on such a scale that it would not be feasable.

Do such maps exist??

 

[Magpie]

Go to any chandlery and buy the Admiralty Chart for your area, will show you the depths and reefs in plenty of detail for your needs.

 

[Magpie]

http://www.ukho.gov.uk/amd/homePage.asp

 

[sarge]

Check out the South Devon post for the last couple of years. There is so much imformation to be found in there for this area. I have used it myself to find places to go around here.

 

[sarge]

It's in the international spearo network & trip reports. Go to europe and mediterranean in the forum menu then click the uk and ireland short cut.

 

[sarge]

Devon - DeeperBlue.net Forums This should work for you. Always learning some thing new with these computers.

 

[poacher]

The Marine Chart or Amiralty chart is the best but may be a bit pricey you could also look for spots using google earth not sure how it will go for Devon but around my area in australia the google images are good enough to see deeper andshallower areas of water to get an idea of location of holes and Bombies etc that are of interest to divers or spearos.
Peter

 

[Pastor]

Google earth is a bit hit and miss around the UK, Multimap.com is pretty decent at giving a close up, I use it quite often for picking possible shore marks

 

[island_sands]

yep thats what i was going to suggest. they also sell cool ones from 20 years back

 

[Pastor]

Well as luck would have it, just been posted on another forum. Here's an online chart service free of charge. You will need to register but it's free and better than nothing

 

[Have Blue]

Thanks for all the responses! Busy looking through lots of maps as we speak Something interesting to do while the water is murky!

 

[dave]

For cheap admiralty charts, try Marine Chart Services they sell out of date charts for peanuts
cheers
dave
Spearguns by Spearo uk ltd finest supplier of speargun, monofins, speargun and freediving equipment