Remember guys, with the exception of sonar data generated and shared by users through the Active Captain App, the sounding data and detail is not new stuff. I suspect it is computer generated based on hydrographic surveys and sometimes near ancient sounding data and therefore not real. Most coastal and offshore soundings were done years ago and many are simply spot soundings. When was the last time you saw a government survey vessel collecting depth data in your area. One foot depth contours for most areas are simply not realistic. Shading and detail is very nice, but often it is not actual recorded sounding data. It is likely computer interpolated and probably pretty close to real. The charts are not updated frequently with regard to NOTAM (notice to mariner) publications. For instance it will not have changes to aids to navigation that are recent (maybe years old) or recent shifts in channels. Bottom line for me, is for coastal stuff in shallow, Google earth is pretty informative, but I won't pay a lot for revisions and fancy shading. Of course I'm an old timer that used DR for years and then got LORAN which I thought was amazing! Little did I know. All the additional detail and bells and whistles is nice, but as someone once said "that gun don't shoot that straight!"
My first sonar was an Eagle paper graph...X-15
I think I mentioned that back a ways in this thread that the shading is mostly based on old stuff and may be averaging and guestimating.
The jersey coast has some really detailed NOAA bathymetry done and that is what is in
certain parts of these Vision relief shading charts. I was able to find it FREE on NOAA Bathymetry site but that doesn't put it on my chartplotter with my waypoints superimposed over it. So I bit the bullet and I am pleased.
I am going to post some screenshots of my waypoints and last year's tracks over top of Shaded relief and 1 ft contours.
They line up perfectly.
I have noticed already that the hi res soundings and the 1 ft contours were done at MIXED times, probably over several years. Some rockpiles don't have 1ft countours and some 1 ft contours of rockpiles don't show in shaded relief. There are some new rockpiles that I know of that are not shown in these charts...
I think the shaded relief is going to be very useful in "seeing" interesting new places to
try, that would never be a thought otherwise.
That could be structure for bottom fishing or a ridge for trolling tuna