MarineTraffic

MarineTraffic is an open, community-based project, which provides real-time information on the movements of ships and the current location of ships in harbours and ports.[1] A database of information on the vessels includes for example details of the location where they were built plus dimensions of the vessels, gross tonnage and International Maritime Organisation (IMO) number. Users can submit photographs of the vessels which other users can rate.

MarineTraffic
Type of site
Ship tracking intelligence
Available inEnglish, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, German, French, Greek, Chinese, Norwegian, Dutch and Portuguese
URLwww.marinetraffic.com
CommercialPartially
RegistrationOptional
Users2,000,000
Launched2007
Current statusOpen

Vessel locations are shown on a Google Maps background using the Google Maps API,[2] Nautical Charts and OpenStreetMap

The basic MarineTraffic service can be used without cost; more advanced functions are available subject to payment.[3]

The site has six million unique visitors on a monthly basis. In April 2015, the service had 600 000 registered users.[4][5]

How it works

Data is gathered from in excess of 18,000 AIS equipped volunteer contributors in over 140 countries around the world.[6] Information provided by AIS equipment, such as unique identification, position, course, and speed is then transferred to the main Marine Traffic servers for display via the website in real time. The site uses Google Maps as its base mapping.

History

MarineTraffic was originally developed as an academic project at the University of the Aegean in Ermoupoli, Greece.[7][8]

In late 2007, Professor Dimitris Lekkas published it as a trial version.[4]

Community

MarineTraffic is highly dependent from its community of radio amateurs or AIS Station owner, its photographers and translators.

References
  1. "Top 3 Websites to Track Your Ship". MarineInsight. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  2. Memos, Demitris (January 20, 2015). "MarineTraffic tracks marine vessels with Google Maps". Official Google for Work Blog. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  3. "Cautiously Optimistic on MarineTraffic Internet AIS – Sail Magazine". Sail Magazine. Retrieved 2015-10-31.
  4. "Site gives landlubbers trove of information about ships". The Virginian-Pilot. Retrieved 2015-10-31.
  5. "MarineTraffic.com releases new notifications". All About Shipping. Retrieved 2015-10-31.
  6. "Site gives landlubbers trove of information about ships". HamptonRoads. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  7. "Marine Traffic – AIS ship tracking". MARINE TRAFFIC. Retrieved 2015-10-31.
  8. "A continent, as drawn by ships (Wired UK)". The Intenet Archived. Archived from the original on 2015-10-21. Retrieved 2015-10-31.
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