Lateral Mark

Lateral marks show the sides of a navigable channel under the IALA Maritime Buoyage System. In Region A (Europe, Africa, India, Australasia, most of Asia) port-hand marks are red with a can topmark and starboard-hand marks are green with a cone; in Region B (the Americas, Japan, Korea, the Philippines) the colors are reversed, red to starboard returning from seaward. Direction of buoyage is generally toward a harbor or upstream, or as printed on the chart. Only the lateral marks differ between regions; cardinal, isolated-danger, safe-water, and special marks are identical worldwide.