Since December 2004, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) requires all vessels over 299GT to carry an Automatic Identification System (AIS) transponder on board, which transmits their position, speed and course, among some other static information, such as vessel’s name, dimensions and voyage details.

Most of us are aware of the ShipAIS web site, and have used it for some years, and it works fine, but utilises a dated mapping system and can be a bit fiddly to make do what you want.

For something a bit more modern and usable, you could give MarineTraffic.com a try.

This uses a Google map tpo display the AIS data, and can be searched on area, port, and ship name. The list of currently visible ships can also be searched, and there are details of the ships, with pics, on offer too.

The map is available for embedding in your own site, and I intend to do this for Scotland, in the Main Site, just as I find that spare time I've been looking for.

The site is rather good if dug into, and I've tracked down details of how to extract the AIS info from the radio signal, and even the circuit modification needed to lift the signal from any of my receivers. They even provide the software needed.

Oh dear.... more time

Update



I was just looking in on the ShipAIS web site...

And they have embedded the Google view from MarineTraffic.com into their own site to get the slicker pan & zoom facility they lack!