Classical hydrographic mapping in shallow waters with surface craft is slow, hazardous, and expensive. The remarkable water penetration capability of several currently used film emulsions and their dramatic presentation of submerged detail provides an alternative tool and supplement for mapping the seabed in shoals and waters of moderate depth. Photogrammetric bathymetric surveys preceding hydrography can show many of the rocks, reefs, shallow areas, photogrammetrically observed depth measurements and depth curves, and other features and thereby assist the hydrographers whose work is more difficult because they do not have the overall view of the bottom to guide their operations in developing important details. The objective of this paper is to advance the comprehension of the potential of photogrammetric bathymetry to provide the following benefits: (1) improve the accuracy and completeness of the hydrographie survey; (2) reduce the cost and time of the field hydrographie survey; and, (3) reduce ship requirements for a particular hydrographic survey, thereby releasing some of the craft for other assignments and/or enlarging the size of the coastal water areas that can be surveyed within a given time frame. The investigation of the potential for accomplishing photogrammetric bathymetry was restricted to ten regions of high priority along the East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico. A five‐year photobathymetry program is envisaged that will require a maximum of 10,765 man‐days of work and cost $1,154,750. These figures can be substantially reduced by employing digitized stereoscopic plotting instruments and developing advanced, sophisticated photogrammetric analytic aerotriangulation procedures.