St. Paul, Minn. – January 21, 2009

OceanGrafix, the first and only company to offer NOAA print-on-demand nautical charts, today announced that it has signed an agreement with the United States Power Squadrons (USPS) to encourage boating safety. Under the agreement, OceanGrafix will work with the USPS, a nonprofit corporation devoted to recreational boating safety, education and enjoyment, to promote safe boating practices within the recreational boating community.

“This agreement helps us reach out to 45,000 members of the USPS with our message about the importance of accurate paper charts,” explains OceanGrafix President Dave DeGree. “Many of today’s boaters rely on outdated litho charts or exclusively on electronics—and neither is a good option. Boaters remain unaware of how frequently cartographic data changes and how dramatically those changes can impact the accuracy of their navigational tools.”

Both OceanGrafix and the USPS encourage boaters never to rely on just one means of navigation and to use accurate paper charts as a backup. Says DeGree, “Despite the many upsides of technology when it comes to navigation, electronics can and will fail at the most inopportune time. When that happens, an accurate paper chart is nice insurance.”

Under the agreement, both parties will continue to promote their messages of safety to mariners. “At the end of the day, what we all care about is encouraging recreational boating safety, and this agreement will help both parties do just that,” says DeGree.

The agreement was in the form of a Memorandum of Understanding. OceanGrafix and USPS have jointly cooperated in the past, mainly at regional events, to promote the use of up-to-date NOAA nautical charts as they relate to boating safety.

Now, the two organizations have formalized an agreement where they will be “working in close cooperation with each other”, with the Memorandum spelling out specific goals and responsibilities, and calling for “mutual support of each other’s recreational boating safety and enjoyment mission.”

Mutual responsibilities cover information and materials exchanges and dissemination, reciprocal web site posts, cooperation at education and safety events and civic service projects, as well as other initiatives.The Memorandum recognizes the unique product that OceanGrafix has to offer: an up-to-date-at-time-of-printing official NOAA nautical chart, derived from daily cartographic updates from NOAA that are downloaded to OceanGrafix.

These updates, and the proprietary software and printing capabilities of OceanGrafix and its agents, ensure a NOAA chart that is 100% up to date at the time of printing. These nautical charts incorporate the latest NLMs (Notice to Local Mariners) and the latest official NOAA chart Editions.

USPS recognizes that a NOAA chart that is up to date can provide greater safety to the recreational mariner.