Finding Them Again: GPS Certificates and the Open National Ash Scattering Registry
Families ask me the same question more than almost any other, sometimes the day of the ceremony and sometimes years later:
“How do we find the place again?”
I am Captain Brett McGhee of Ocean Ashes. When we scatter ashes at sea, we leave the marina, run offshore past the legal line, and release a loved one into water that does not stand still. The Gulf and the Atlantic keep moving. What does not have to move is the record of where you said goodbye.
That is why every Ocean Ashes ceremony includes precise GPS coordinates on a scattering certificate — and why we opened a free public map so those coordinates can still be found when paper fades, phones change, and the next generation asks where to look.
Why GPS belongs on every certificate
In U.S. ocean waters, cremated remains must be scattered at least three nautical miles from land under the federal burial-at-sea general permit. Official EPA guidance: https://www.epa.gov/marine-protection-permitting/burial-sea. We go that distance on purpose, then write down the latitude and longitude taken at the moment of release.
Those numbers are not decoration. They are the last known place. A sister may want to stand on a beach years later and know which way to face. A grandchild may only have a name and a story about “somewhere off St. Pete.” A friend of the family may never have been on the boat and still deserves a way back to the water.
On an attended charter from our flagship at Maximo Marina in Saint Petersburg (https://www.oceanashes.com/saint-petersburg), families often watch me record the coordinates while the petals are still on the surface. On an unattended scattering (https://www.oceanashes.com/unattended), you are not aboard, but the same care applies: offshore beyond three nautical miles, rose petals, EPA notice, photos, and a custom GPS certificate sent to you afterward. Popular unattended is $189. Deluxe is $250 and adds HD video plus three certificates. Extra certificates are $20 if siblings each want one to frame.
Private attended charters are $595 for up to six guests. Groups larger than six are split trips only; we do not arrange a larger vessel. The same GPS practice holds at our other ports — Destin, the Florida Keys / Islamorada, St. Augustine, and Galveston — so the certificate means the same thing whether the day was quiet and private or shared with the whole family on deck.
What the Open National Ash Scattering Registry is
A certificate in a drawer is only useful if someone can still find it. Paper gets lost. Phones get replaced. That is why we built the Open National Ash Scattering Registry (https://www.oceanashes.com/national-scattering-registry): a free, public map of scatterings at sea.
Search a loved one’s name. See the GPS. Record a memorial from any coast — whether the ceremony was with Ocean Ashes or with another captain elsewhere. It is not a cemetery and it is not a paid listing. It is a public record so the ocean, which is a living memorial, can still be found.
Each pin is a person: a name, the years of a life, the date the ashes went into the water, and the coordinates taken at the ceremony. Ocean Ashes ceremonies already go on this map. So can a scattering done by another family on another coast. Florida, Texas, California, New England. Gulf or Atlantic. If you have the name and the GPS, it belongs here.
You do not need an account to search. There is no fee to add a memorial. We review submissions by hand so the map stays accurate and respectful. If you placed a pin and later want it changed or removed, email brett@oceanashes.comand we will take care of it.
How to search or add a memorial
Open the National Scattering Registry. Use Search the map and type the name. Select the pin to see the years, the scattering date, the body of water, and the GPS. For a common name, add a middle name or the year they died.
To add a memorial, use Add a memorial on that same page. Pull out the certificate if you have one. You will need:
Loved one’s full name as it should appear
Year born and year died, if you have them
Date of the scattering
Latitude and longitude in decimal degrees (west longitude is negative — for example 27.673 and -82.796)
Body of water and, if known, the nearest port or city
Your contact information so we can reach you
You do not need to have used Ocean Ashes. This is an open registry. If you only have degrees-minutes-seconds on an older certificate, send it to us and we will convert it. If you have a story about “off Clearwater” or “near Destin” without exact GPS, write anyway — we can often place a respectful note near those waters.
How this fits the rest of a family’s plan
Some families book an attended day when travel is possible. Others ship ashes for unattended scattering when a boat day is not possible yet. USPS current rules: https://news.usps.com/2025/03/01/theres-a-new-rule-for-shipping-cremated-remains/. Either way, the GPS certificate and the registry are how the place stays findable.
Current packages and ports: https://www.oceanashes.com/new-products-1. Veterans: https://www.oceanashes.com/veterans-affairs. Traveling with cremains: https://www.oceanashes.com/ocean-ashes/2025/9/29/traveling-with-cremated-remains-the-definitive-guide-2025-update.
The ocean carries what we entrust to it. The certificate records the place. The registry is how you find your way back when the years have moved on.
If you want help reading a certificate, placing a pin, or choosing attended or unattended for your family, reach out. I answer when I can, and Ocean Ashes will treat your loved one as we would want our own family treated on the water.
Captain Brett McGhee Ocean Ashes · oceanashes.com · (727) 362-6393
