The Deutsches Hydrographisches Institut (DHI) in 1988 
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4 General Report 
The Deutsches Hydrographisches Institut (DHI) in 1988 
The Deutsches Hydrographisches Institut (DHI) in Hamburg, a Central Federal 
Authority within the jurisdiction of the Federal Minister of Transport, has com 
prehensive responsibilities for navigation and the marine environment. To these 
belong hydrographic survey and the issue of nautical charts and publications, the 
hydrographic services such as the Tide, Sea Level Forecast and Storm Surge 
Warning Service, the Type-Testing and Type-Approval of nautical pieces of equip 
ment and systems for navigation, and research operations for marine navigation 
and the fisheries and for the protection of the marine environment. 
A total length of about 20,000 km in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea were newly- 
surveyed. 203 known wrecks were checked and the positions were fixed and 
determined of 92 new wrecks. For shipping, numerous Pilots and other nautical 
publications and charts were newly processed and issued. The change-over to the 
International Chart Portfolio made further progress. Furthermore, the DHI co 
operated at international level in the work on the definition and standardization of 
the “Electronic Chart”. 
Owing to the lack of possibilities of disposal on land, the DHI had to grant 5 permits 
for the incineration at sea of chlorinated wastes. The license of the incineration 
plant on board the incineration ship “Vesta” was renewed. 
4 permits were granted for research actions in the region of the continental shelf 
of the Federal Republic of Germany. 
350 administration proceedings were carried out against violation of MARPOL 
1973/78 and 294 fines were imposed. 
The DHI hosted the Conference of the Baltic Sea Hydrographers - which takes 
place every two years - and participated in the corresponding conference of the 
North Sea hydrographers. The aim of these regional conferences is the improve 
ment of co-operation and exchange of information at nautical-hydrographic level. 
The oceanographic services worked in the usual manner, although in part subject 
to more difficult conditions because all manned Light Vessels have been inactivated 
and the automatic measuring systems require even more considerable installation 
and maintenance work. On the automatic Light Vessels “Elbe” and “TWEms”, the 
oceanographic measurement systems have been installed and placed in operation, 
The surveillance and research activities in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea have 
been intensified in view of the international endeavours for keeping the seas 
clean. Thus, two large-scale monitoring projects (summer and winter) took place 
in the North Sea with the purpose of the determination of heavy metals in seawater 
at 150 stations and in the surface sediments. 
Experts from the Baltic Sea states conferred in the DHI in order to intensify the 
international exchange of Ice Reports, Ice Observations, and the utilization of 
Remote-Sensing data. 
The German Oceanographic Data Centre took into service a further part of the 
Meeresumwelt Datenbank (MUDAB; Marine Environment Data Bank). MUDAB is 
financed together with the Umweltbundesamt in Berlin. For the first time, con 
tributions to the “Data of the Environment” were produced from the data banks of 
MUDAB. The aim is to collect all the data which is relevant for the marine environ 
ment in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, to evaluate them graphically and 
statistically, and to make them available upon request.