The Argentine Hydrographic Service ( es, Servicio de Hidrografía Naval, abbreviated SHN) is the branch of the

Ministry of Defense {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in state ...

responsible for providing hydrographic services.

Background

Created on January 1, 1879, as ''Oficina Central de Hidrografía'' ( en, Hydrographic Central Office) by decree 11.289 of President

Nicolás Avellaneda Nicolás Remigio Aurelio Avellaneda Silva (3 October 1837 – 24 November 1885) was an Argentine politician and journalist, and President of Argentina from 1874 to 1880. Avellaneda's main projects while in office were banking and education ...

. It became the current SHN on 1972 by National Law 19.922. Since 2007, it became part of the

. The main mission of the SHN is to provide safe navigation on national waters. The service do so with the creation and maintenance of

nautical chart A nautical chart is a graphic representation of a sea area and adjacent coastal regions. Depending on the scale of the chart, it may show depths of water and heights of land ( topographic map), natural features of the seabed, details of the coa ...

s, coastal marker buoys, and lighthouses. In concordance to the International Maritime Organization regulations, the SHN is also the global coordinator for the NAVAREA VI zone, which covers the South West Atlantic Ocean region being responsible for emitting alerts to ships at sea and coordinating search and rescue operations. The national official time is also a responsibility of the SHN through the National Naval Observatory. By means of Decree 788/2007 it was transferred from the

Argentine Navy The Argentine Navy (ARA; es, Armada de la República Argentina). This forms the basis for the navy's ship prefix "ARA". is the navy of Argentina. It is one of the three branches of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic, together with t ...

field to the

one.

Fleet

As of 2010 the following Navy ships are assigned to it: * ARA ''Puerto Deseado'' (Q-20)Buque Oceanográfico ARA "Puerto Deseado". Campaña SAMOC I – 2010.
/ref> * ARA ''Comodoro Rivadavia'' (Q-11) * ARA ''Cormorán'' (Q-15) * ARA ''Petrel'' (Q-16) In February 2015 CONICET acquired the RV Sonne.

References

*
Decree 788/2007
{{Time signal authorities National hydrographic offices Argentine Navy Military units and formations established in 1879