Interview 
6 
Hydrographische Nachrichten 
I want nothing less than all 
the physics of the sea chart« 
An academic discussion with MATHIAS JONAS* 
Dr. Mathias Jonas is Vice President of the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency. 
The 55 year old National Hydrographer of Germany and Managing Director of the de 
partment »Nautical Hydrography« is responsible for national activities in wreck search, 
sea survey and the issue of related nautical publications. He represents those tasks in 
various organs of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the International 
Hydrographic Organization (IHO). In the interview with Hydrographische Nachrichten 
the expert for electronic sea charts talks about his preference for paper and about the 
future of the printed sea 
National Hydrographer IHO Baltic Sea | S-100 | universal hydrographic data model 
standards | sea chart | paper chart 
chart. And he believes 
that dealing with the 
ocean awakes the good 
in man. 
The interview was held by 
Lars Schiller and Thomas 
Dehling September 23rd, 
2016 at the Federal Maritime 
and Hydrographic Agency 
(BSH) in Rostock 
Translation by Verena 
Eisemann 
HN: What does a National Hydrographer do? Are 
there any clearly defined tasks? 
Mathias Jonas: In my function as National Hy 
drographer I represent the National Hydrographic 
Office of the Federal Republic of Germany within 
the IHO. 
HN: Does the German National Hydrographer 
have any different tasks than the one in other 
countries? 
Jonas: In many countries the head of the Hydro- 
graphic Office is exclusively responsible for car 
tographical issues and nautical publications. In 
Germany, there are more tasks like surveying and 
the supervision of the fleet as we do not charter 
surveying capacity but we have our own ships. In 
sofar, I have guite a broad field of issues compared 
toother National Hydrographers. 
HN: How does the cooperation with the hydrogra 
phers of neighbouring countries work? 
Jonas: Our bilateral cooperation is good and we 
coordinate with each other In the bodies of the 
HO. The professional exchange is great. However, 
the Hydrographic Offices of the neighbouring 
countries are organised In a 
different way. In Poland and 
in the Netherlands for exam 
ple, they belong to the navy, 
thus they are not part of a 
civil ministry. Hydrographic 
surveying and the publica 
tion of nautical charts by the 
navy have a long naval tradi 
tion in coastal states based 
on its strategic importance 
for the case of operation. 
Only due to special circum 
stances in history, hydrogra 
phy has become part of civil 
administration in comparatively few countries. In 
the old Federal Republic of Germany it happened 
after World War II; on the other hand, hydrography 
in the former GDR remained in the responsibility 
»Hydrography has a long 
naval tradition based on Its 
strategic Importance for the 
case of operation. Only due 
to special circumstances In 
history, hydrography has 
become part of civil adminis 
tration In comparatively few 
countries« 
of the military until the end. In Denmark, the Hy 
drographic Office is part of the civil administration; 
however, the survey units are military. In all other 
Scandinavian countries and Baltic States it Is part 
of the traffic administration. These different struc 
tures make cooperation across borders very chal 
lenging. 
HN: Are there any sensitive issues in the coopera 
tion? 
Jonas: The gas pipeline across the Baltic Sea has 
a certain political dimension in the German-Polish 
relationship. Of course, hydrography doesn't play 
a main role in the political process of the pipeline, 
nonetheless, the topographic circumstances have 
to be clear. Therefore, it is very important that non 
political professionals remain in dialogue. Even In 
times when the project was politically controver 
sial, we exchanged data and helped each other 
and kept us informed. 
HN: Do you cooperate with our French neigh 
bours as well? 
Jonas: We do not only cultivate our regiona 
neighbourhood, but also the bigger one in Eu 
rope. For this purpose we founded a working 
group within the IHO in order to represent the 
Hydrographic Offices in Europe to a greater ex 
tent. The aim Is not only the strengthening of our 
position In terms of Ideation but also materially 
through EU-funds. France has a lot of experience 
in using EU-funds for projects that's why we aim 
at closer cooperation. We have launched one 
project already: Coastal Mapping. With it we dem 
onstrate how high-resolution capturing of off 
shore areas on both sides of the coastline can be 
technically improved. In a following project based 
on the first one, we want to capture the bathym 
etry of subseguent waters in high resolution up to 
a depth of 10 metres. 
HN: What is a special feature of cooperation in the 
Baltic Sea region? 
Jonas: The Baltic Sea is regarded as our laboratory 
for marine policy. It is a clearly defined geographic