Ships: Live Marine Traffic

Summary: Switching on the ships layer, what is drawn at each zoom, filtering by vessel type, and reading a ship’s details and track.

The Marine Traffic section of the Layers panel shows ships broadcasting AIS around the UK, Ireland and the near continent, from the Bay of Biscay approaches to the Norwegian Sea and across to Denmark. It is off until you switch it on, and your choice is remembered.

Switching It On

Choose All Vessels in the section’s Mode. Several thousand ships are in the area at any time, most of them stopped, so what is drawn depends on how far in you are:

• Zoomed right out — only vessels under way.
• Closer — vessels at anchor or moored appear as dots.
• Closer still — every ship is an arrow pointing the way it is heading.

Positions refresh about once a minute for ships under way and every couple of minutes for stopped ones. Between reports a ship under way is carried along its course at its speed, so it moves smoothly rather than jumping. If you pan beyond the area the layer says No ships here: this view is outside the area covered.

Vessel Types

Chips filter by category, grouped from each ship’s AIS type:

• Cargo — general cargo, container ships, bulk carriers.
• Tanker — oil, chemical, LNG and LPG tankers.
• Passenger — ferries, cruise ships.
• Fishing — fishing vessels.
• Tug/Pilot — tugs, pilot vessels, port tenders.
• Sailing — sailing vessels and pleasure craft.
• High Speed — high-speed craft and hovercraft.
• Military — naval vessels. Most military ships do not broadcast AIS, so expect few.
• SAR/Coastguard — search and rescue, coastguard, law enforcement and medical vessels, including RNLI lifeboats, HM Coastguard and Border Force.
• Other — dredgers, diving operations and unclassified vessels.

Options and Search

• Labels — show names beside vessels under way. Only visible when zoomed in.
• Trails — show the recent track of the vessel you have selected.
• Search — filter by name, MMSI or type. Use commas for several terms.

Hover over a ship for its name, or click it for its details: Ship Type, Status (under way using engine, at anchor, moored, engaged in fishing and so on), Speed, Course, Heading, Destination, Callsign, Length, Draught, Position and the time of its Last report. A ship that has stopped reporting says No longer being received.

Infrastructure

The same section has chips for Wind Farms, Oil & Gas installations, Marine Sectors and the Shipping Forecast areas, which can be shown with or without the ships.

As with the rest of the map, this is for interest and situational awareness only and must not be used for navigation.