AIS navigational status
AIS navigational status 5: Moored
Made fast alongside a berth or to a buoy. What status 5 means, what speed and track should go with it, and how often it is simply wrong.
What status 5 means
The vessel is moored — tied up alongside a quay, another vessel or a mooring buoy. It is a different state from being at anchor, and the two are worth keeping apart when reading port activity.
What should go with it
Effectively zero. Small non-zero speeds are GNSS noise, not movement.
Navigational status is entered by hand on the bridge; speed, course and position come from a satellite receiver. Read the status as testimony and the rest as measurement. Where they agree you have learned something. Where they disagree, the measurement is usually right.
How it goes wrong
Commonly left on "moored" after departure, so a ship can sail with this status for hours. Equally, a position some distance off any quay with status 5 is more likely an anchored ship with the wrong status, or a mooring buoy.
The matching lights and shapes
The AIS status mirrors a state defined in the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGs), which also say what the vessel should display:
No specific signal: the collision regulations have no light or shape for a vessel made fast alongside.
Summary for orientation only. The COLREGs text is the authority; this site is not a navigation reference.
All sixteen codes
| Code | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 0 | Under way using engine |
| 1 | At anchor |
| 2 | Not under command |
| 3 | Restricted manoeuvrability |
| 4 | Constrained by her draught |
| 5 | Moored |
| 6 | Aground |
| 7 | Engaged in fishing |
| 8 | Under way sailing |
| 9 | Reserved for future amendment (HSC) |
| 10 | Reserved for future amendment (WIG) |
| 11 | Power-driven vessel towing astern |
| 12 | Power-driven vessel pushing ahead or towing alongside |
| 13 | Reserved for future use |
| 14 | AIS-SART, MOB-AIS or EPIRB-AIS active |
| 15 | Undefined (default) |
For the field as a whole — and how this site handles it — read AIS navigational status codes, all sixteen.