How to Use the Charts

Chart Features

1. Hot Bite Icons – These icons will give you species, date, location and comments if available. The tuna icon shows on-the-water reports, and the plane icon shows FishDope spotter plane reports.

  • 1 Day Old: Red Icons
  • 2 Days Old: Orange Icons
  • 3 Days Old: Dark Yellow Icons
  • 4-5 Days Old: Yellow Icons

2. Pointer Position – This shows the GPS location of your pointer on the map in latitude and longitude.

3. Temperature Scale & Legend – Depending on the currently selected layer, this shows the color scale used on the chart for that layer. By hovering your pointer over a temperature map you will see the corresponding water temperature on the scale.

4. Water Temperature Sub-menu: SST, Raw SST, Cloud Free SST, Bite Zone – This gives you sea surface temperature information. Transparent areas indicate there is no info available due to cloud cover. Explanation of the layers

5. Water Color Sub-menu: Chl – This gives Chlorophyll-a concentration. Chlorophyll explanation

6. Closures  See Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and Cowcod Conservation Area pages for regulations.

  • Red: No-Take Marine Reserve
  • Purple: No-Take State Marine Conservation Area
  • Blue: Partial-take State Marine Conservation Area
  • Orange: Cowcod Conservation Area
  • Red Line: US – Mexico Border
  • Gray Line: 12nm FMM zone

7. Map Layers – Basic map layers that can be turned on or off individually.

  • Base Layer: Color-shaded depth/relief and bottom topography
  • Bathymetry: Depth contours
    • Major Contours (bold): 100, 500, 1000, 1500, 2000 fathoms
    • Minor Contours (regular): 20, 60, 200, 300, 400, 600, 700, 800, 900 fathoms
  • Lat/Lon Grid: Lines of Latitude and Longitude
  • Labels: Place names for landmarks, geographical features, fishing spots, etc.

8. Collapse Menu – Use this button to collapse (hide) or expand (show) the main menu.

9. Date Select Menu – Select from thumbnail previews to view previous satellite shots for the selected layer type. You can also animate the map using the play button to advance images at the selected time interval.

10. Route Planning – Click the top “Route” icon once and it will turn green to let you know you’re in Route Planning mode.

  • To start a route, click or tap anywhere on the map to create your first waypoint.
  • Add additional waypoints by clicking on the map to create your route. At each new point, a pop-up window will tell you the GPS position, distance from previous point, and total distance traveled for the route.
  • End the route by either double-clicking on the last point you make, or by clicking the Route icon again.
  • Clear all routes by clicking on the ‘Clear Route” X icon directly below the Route icon.

11. Print Map – There are two print options: Auto and Custom.

  • Auto will attempt to fit the current map view neatly on a standard 8.5” x 11” sheet of paper.
  • Custom lets you select your own custom print area. When you select this, the cursor turns to a crosshairs symbol. You can then click and drag on the map to select your desired print area

12. Full Screen – Click this icon to view the map in full-screen mode.

13. Zoom Control – Zoom in and out with the + and – buttons. You can also zoom with the scroll wheel on your mouse or by using two fingers on your touchpad. On mobile devices, pinch to zoom in and out.
To use the custom Area Zoom tool:

  • Click the Area Zoom icon to change the cursor to a cross symbol
  • Click and drag to draw a rectangle. The map will zoom to best fit the rectangle within the map area.
What happened to Range and Bearing?
Our Range and Bearing Tool was redundant with the Route Planner, so we wrapped them up into one easy-to-use Route Planning tool for this new version. Look for the Route icon on the left side of the map. Click the icon once to turn on Route Planning and then click on the map to select your first point. You can then select another point on the map to get the GPS coordinates and distance between the two points.
Where is tide and sun/moon info?
We are still developing a module to add sun, moon, tide, and solunar table data. In the meantime, this information is still available on our old “legacy” maps.
Why does it look different on my phone/tablet?
To make the maps fully mobile-compatible, we use responsive layouts that automatically adjust to your device screen resolution to provide you with the best possible user experience for your particular phone or tablet.

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