The following revision to sea areas in use by the United Kingdom was implemented on the 4th February 2002

With effect 1200 UTC on Monday 4th February 2002 the following changes were made to the sea areas used in forecasts and warnings issued by the Met Office via the GMDSS SafetyNET™ and NAVTEX services, HM Coastguard services, the Irish Coastguard, the BBC and in other forecasts using the coastal sea areas as defined by the United Kingdom:

   a.    The southern boundary of sea areas PLYMOUTH and SOLE and the northern boundary of
          sea areas BISCAY and FINISTERRE has been re-aligned to the Metarea I/II boundary of
          48°27'N.

   b.    Former sea area FINISTERRE has been renamed FITZROY.

   c.    All other sea areas used by the United Kingdom including TRAFALGAR remain unchanged.

• Click here for a chart showing the revised boundaries of the sea areas in the South-west Approaches and the renamed area FitzRoy.
  Note that the chart is not an official chart and is merely to give some idea of the changes.
• Click here for the co-ordinates of all the sea areas (including the High Seas) in use by the United Kingdom .
• Click here for a copy of the Met Office chart showing all the areas currently in use the Shipping Forecast broadcast by the BBC and via NAVTEX and HM Coastguard stations.
  A downloadable version (size 270kbytes): metopic.jpg    Please note that the chart is ©Crown Copyright
• Copy of Bibliographic notes about Admiral FitzRoy which were published in the Marine Observer in 1924.
• Click here for a chart of the areas currently included in the High Seas forecast issued by the Met Office.
• The RYA and R Met Soc Met Map is available in PDF format via the RYA site, click on Met Maps in the top left and follow the instructions for downloading the map - direct link to the map (will only display if you have Acrobat installed)

Metarea II - co-ordinated areas used in marine forecasts issued by France, Spain, Portugal and Morocco

Also with effect from 4th February 2002 there has been a major revision of sea areas within Metarea II. This revision is the result of extensive negotiations involving France, Spain, Portugal and Morocco and is the realisation of a co-ordinated set of areas to be used by all four countries when providing forecasts within Metarea II. Météo-France have kindly made available the charts that have been published in their Journal of Marine Meteorology, Met Mar, and these charts can be accessed below:

• Chart showing areas used in forecasts issued via Inmarsat and NAVTEX broadcasts for Metarea II
• Chart showing the areas used in forecasts issued via Radio France Inter (162 kHz) and the France Bleu network of medium-wave stations
• Chart showing the areas used in forecasts broadcast by Radio France Internationale

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