The Hydrographic Institute (IH), an agency of the Portuguese Navy, was established in 1960. The IH works in direct dependence of the Admiral Chief of Staff of the Navy, with an expertise on the strategic guidelines and the monitoring of their implementation, exercised by the Minister of National Defence, in conjunction with the Minister of Education and Science and the Minister of Agriculture, Sea, Environment and Spatial Planning. The IH is recognized as State Laboratory, enjoying administrative and financial autonomy.
Being an organ of the Navy, the Portuguese Hydrographic Office is permanently on the ocean, whether using the naval means which the Portuguese Navy puts at its service, or through the engagement of the hydrographic survey teams, or even through the different technical equipment which it operates and monitors.
