There are big-hearted people in this world who adopt children, and many more who adopt pets. But it takes a special blend of devotion and tenacity to adopt a nautical chart.

The adoptee is not warm and fuzzy and won't show any appreciation for all you've done. Other than a small printed credit line, the only major payback is knowing that the work you do could possibly prevent a boating accident one day.

For a special segment of boating volunteers, that's more than enough. Rather than complaining about a lack of government services and less-than-timely chart updates from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), boaters within the ranks of the U.S. Power Squadrons have pitched in to do something about it. Some 109 squadrons in all corners of the U.S. have now adopted a whole NOAA chart or a portion of one and have made an open-ended commitment to investigate and document all of that chart's features and file extremely detailed reports on needed changes.

Adopt-A-Chart grew out of a longstanding arrangement NOAA has had with the USPS to accept chart corrections called Cooperative Charting. In 1997, the Richmond (VA) Power Squadron became the first to officially "adopt" Chart 12235 (Rappahannock River Entrance, Piankatank and Great Wicomico Rivers) in a pilot project. Some 40 of its members analyzed 98% of the chart and sent in hundreds of documented corrections within a year. Richmond also had the distinction in 1999 of being the first group to have its name printed in an acknowledgement on an official government new edition chart.

"Without this volunteer work, it probably would not get done," said Harold "Bud" Schantz, the NOAA cartographer who is in charge of Adopt-A-Chart and coordinates the squadrons' work. "We don't have our own field people like we used to and the quality of the work we're getting is really quite good."

So far 20 NOAA charts have been printed with a squadron's credit line and groups from Bellingham, WA, to Cocoa Beach, FL, as well as Hawaii, are out in their own boats scouting out chart corrections with the doggedness of Columbo cracking a case.

Recreational boaters have been enlisted to come to NOAA's aid because the agency has not secured enough funding to keep up with corrections, print new editions and convert its suite of 1,000 charts of U.S. waters into digital format for use in electronic chart products. Right now at current funding levels, it would take about 20 years for NOAA to eliminate its backlog of hydrographic surveys of bottomland, just for waterways and harbors deemed in "critical" need. The backlog to resurvey all waters would be about 312 years.

While the agency is happy to get all the help it can, the volunteers are by no means "turned loose" in this program; there are very exact guidelines they must follow, minimum equipment requirements and many other specifications before their work is accepted. The printed guidelines alone go on for 80 pages and volunteers attend NOAA-sponsored weekend training seminars and travel to NOAA's Maryland headquarters at least once a year. The agency is looking into expanding Adopt-A-Chart to the Coast Guard Auxiliary as well as yacht clubs that might be interested.

Some of the noteworthy chart corrections coming forth from volunteers have included charted bridges, water towers, overhead wires and buildings that no longer exist, mistakes such as a red-over-green bifurcated channel marker that was charted as green-over-red (which would make the preferred channel wrong!), inaccurate positions of submerged wrecks, sand bars, especially after large storms, and even water depths.

"Most of the aids to navigation are in good shape because we get them from the Coast Guard," Schantz said. "The positioning (of items on the water) from volunteers didn't used to be that great, but now with Selective Availability (SA) turned off of GPS, plus Differential GPS, the data is becoming more usable."

The boom in sophisticated marine electronics at consumer-friendly prices has greatly enhanced the capabilities of this volunteer navy. Chart-adopters are using recording depth sounders, DGPS and even WAAS receivers for accurate. The reporting of corrections, now done manually on forms, is going electronic as NOAA expects this year to switch to a Web-based reporting system.

For water depths, Schantz said if a squadron reports "shoaler" water than is shown on the chart, and the volunteers took the readings correctly, NOAA will make the change. If the water is indicated to be deeper, they'll generally leave it as marked. (The NOAA guidelines call for the boat's position to be held in one spot for five minutes with depth finder readings taken every 30 seconds, then all 10 readings averaged out.)

Reports from the squadrons are all reviewed by NOAA cartographers and most are entered in their electronic database of chart data. The next time that chart is printed, the corrections are included, although funding problems have slowed up the schedule of new editions to about 135 this year. The agency would like to print at least 300 a year.

Two of the more prolific detectives are a husband and wife team from Saginaw, MI, whose squadron adopted Chart #14867 and 14863. Del and Sharon Miller, living legends now at NOAA, got their squadron involved as part of their public service mission, but found they truly enjoyed the work. Del is retired from a career at General Motors. As USPS District Chairman, he's responsible for 21 squadrons all over Michigan and part of Indiana, and thus, every Great Lakes chart that touches Michigan. He and his wife, their squadron Adopt-A-Chart leader, think nothing of driving 300 miles on a weekend as part of their research.

"After looking at the chart in our area (Saginaw River) and the Coast Pilot, we saw so many mistakes, name changes, structures that weren't there anymore," said Sharon. "You have to document everything you send in with a report. For example, if a tower is gone, you have to go to city hall and get a copy of the demolition permit."

Sharon went so far as to track down the actual check that was written to tear down an old waterfront building, gotten a state trooper to write a letter for her about a mismarked radio antenna, and helped organize a SCUBA dive team to check out a submerged object. Their sleuthing has taken them to libraries, the city engineering department, the electric power company, the city inspector's office, the road commission and town and city halls.

"It's a real challenge to me when I see something that isn't right," she said. "I'll dig and dig until I come up with an answer." One recent report she prepared had 30 corrections for NOAA.

Besides the unspoken gratitude of hundreds of current and future skippers plying the waters of Saginaw Bay, the Millers can look forward to the reprinting of their chart in 2002 that will carry their squadron's name. And for them, that's more than enough.