Marine Glossary

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Local Notice to Mariners

A weekly publication of the USCG district offices that reports on the status of aids to navigation (lights, buoys, electronic aids, day marks, etc.) along with other news from the USCG pertinent to safe navigation. They include changes to charts both permanent (pen and ink) and temporary. They are typically some 5 to 10 pages each available at no charge on request from the USCG. See also Broadcast Notice to Mariners and note on Canadian Notices given at the end of this section.

Copies are kept on record at local USCG offices and also at many libraries, marinas, yacht clubs and most commercial maritime companies. They are often referenced as LNM 18/20, which would mean the weekly supplement for the 18th week of 2020.

Once a month the weekly issue is called a Monthly Edition. These are basically the same as the weekly ones, except with perhaps an expanded section on general news. The monthly issues are numbered sequentially within the sequence of weekly ones.

There is also an annual issue called Special Notice to Mariners. This is a particularly useful publication that covers navigational matters unique to the region, along with various safety information and services in the region. This special issue is available on request from the USCG, independent of the Local Notices. It is an entirely different type of document than the Local Notices.

The latest LNM can be downloaded from the USCG Navigation Center.

The Defense mapping Agency also publishes a set of Notices to Mariners that cover international waters.

Remember that although these will all be sent out free of charge for some period of time, nothing is really free. We end up paying in tax dollars and risk the existence of the service by misuse. These are technical documents of little interest unless much time is spent in the waters covered. For a casual inspection it is best to check them out in the library, or call the local USCG office for a sample rather than a subscription.

Each issue of the Local Notice is organized as follows:

I. Special Notices: include military operations on the water, status of electronic aids, changes in regulations, changes in the nature of some aids, and other announcements.

II. Discrepancies and discrepancies corrected: aids that are not working properly are listed according to Light List number and chart number. Discrepancies include such things as: missing, destroyed, extinguished, on emergency operation, improper characteristic, destroyed, etc. The phrase watching properly means it has been fixed.

III. Temporary changes and temporary changes corrected: similar to II but known to be temporary, such as down for repair, in the process of being up graded etc.

IV. Chart corrections: permanent changes to charts listed by number.

V. Advanced notice of changes in aids to navigation: warnings that certain changes will be made in the near future.

VI. Proposed changes in aids to navigation: announced with the intention of soliciting input from mariners that will be affected by the proposed changes.

VII. General: includes yacht races and other maritime events on the water, schedules of bridge operations, sometimes lists USCG auxiliary courses, discussion of rules or regulation changes, and other matters of general interest to mariners.

VIII. Corrections to Light List: (for the volume covering the local district) similar to chart corrections, but presented in the format of the Light List.

Also find additional Enclosures: includes supplements to other navigation publications (Nav Rules, Coast Pilots, etc.), new configurations of lights or buoys, or other documents or illustrations relevant to navigation.
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The Canadian government also has a set of Local Notices to Mariners. Call: (613) 990-3037 or fax (613) 991-4982 for mail list information. Their notices are available by BBS, but special software is required. See Source Book, or by internet see http://www.coast.com/notmar. The Canadian Light List and Radio Aids to Navigation are also available on line at that address.

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Note that there is no marine weather covered in the notices, except insofar as a recent storm might have affected the local aids to navigation.

An abbreviated form of the Local Notice to Mariners is also broadcast daily on VHF radio, announced on channel 16 and then given on channel 22. These are called Broadcast Notice to Mariners. They are typically broadcast twice a day, 12 hours apart. Call your local district office for the schedule or they are also listed in Radio Navigational Aids in the section called Navigational warnings, section United States. Neighboring USCG stations will typically have the broadcasts about 1 hour apart. The times of broadcast also change by 1 hour during daylight saving time. Other nations have similar broadcasts.

Broadcast Notice to Mariners are also transmitted in text form in the NAVTEX broadcasts. They are referenced as, for example, BNM 0275-95 which would mean this is the 275th such announcement from that USCG district for 1995. Samples are given in the Source Book under NAVTEX.

See also Notice to Mariners, which is the DMA version for foreign waters.