In 1999 it was decided to create an international team of specialists and combine efforts and expertise to produce a new, more accurate bathymetric map of Lake Baikal. The aim was to re-compile the original sounding data that were used for the 1992 maps, to digitise them, to correct them using up-to-date, calibrated acoustic velocity information, to integrate them with as much as possible of the more recently acquired sounding data, and to produce a new, computer-generated, computer version of the Lake Baikal bathymetry map based on ALL available sounding data.