Parks Victoria - Marine Mapping Education Resource Kit
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Activity 1: Location, location

Background: Positions on the earth’s surface can be accurately located using two sets of coordinates given as a latitude and longitude. Originally obtained using measurements of angles between the sun, moon and stars, in conjunction with accurate clocks, positions on the earth’s surface were added to navigational charts in order to provide the details of land features such as ports, and hazards that might be found in the water such as reefs. Today global positioning satellites are used with a Geographic Positioning System (GPS) on board to enable accurate positioning of the boat to be easily obtained.

Part A: Finding Victoria’s Marine National Parks

Part B: Navigating to Points of Interest in Point Addis Marine National Park

For marine research where land features are not obvious accurate positioning is extremely important. In Marine Habitat Mapping knowing the actual location of research vessels is needed in order to be able to place the data that is being collected accurately onto a map. Maps produced in this way provide information about the location of different habitats, features of the parks, and allow scientists and managers to monitor changes over time by being able to return to exactly the same position in the future.

In this exercise you will use mapping skills to find each of Victoria’s Marine National Parks, and then navigate to a number of points of interest discovered within Point Addis Marine National Park through the Marine Mapping project.

Objective: To practice using coordinates to find objects on maps and charts.

Next - Part A: Finding Victoria’s Marine National Parks

Download a printable version of Activity 1

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