AIS navigational status 7: Engaged in fishing

What status 7 means

The vessel is fishing with nets, lines, trawls or other gear that restricts its ability to manoeuvre. It describes what the vessel is doing now, not what kind of vessel it is.

What should go with it

Trawlers typically tow at low single-digit knots on meandering or back-and-forth tracks; vessels hauling or setting gear may be almost stationary.

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

Some fishing vessels leave status 7 set permanently, including in port and on passage to the grounds. A straight track at passage speed with status 7 is a boat going somewhere, not a boat fishing.

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:

Rule 26 — two cones points together by day; green over white all-round lights when trawling, red over white for other fishing.

Summary for orientation only. The COLREGs text is the authority; this site is not a navigation reference.

All sixteen codes

For the field as a whole — and how this site handles it — read AIS navigational status codes, all sixteen.