MarineActivityCoastal AIS, clearly readOpen live map

Fleet dashboard

What our receivers can hear right now

Every number on this page counts vessels currently held in our AIS snapshot — that is,what shore-based receivers we read can hear at this moment. It is not a count of what is at sea. AIS is VHF radio, our coverage is terrestrial only, and the receiver network is dense on some coasts, thin on others and effectively absent mid-ocean.

Snapshot loadedSource: AISStream.ioUpdated 0s agoOpen the live map →

Vessels heard

39,069

Distinct MMSIs in the current snapshot. Not a count of ships at sea.

Under way

10,160

Reporting 0.5 kn or more —26.0% of those heard.

Stopped

28,809

Under 0.5 kn, or moored, at anchor or aground —73.7%.

Type resolved

25,612

Have sent us a ship type —65.6%.13,457 have not.

Freshest fix

40 s

Age of the newest position in the snapshot. Oldest:6 h.

Motion

Moving, stopped, or not saying

Under way (0.5 kn or faster): 10,160 (26.0%)Stopped or made fast: 28,809 (73.7%)Motion not reported: 100 (0.3%)
  • 10,160 Under way · 26.0% · speed over ground 0.5 kn or more
  • 28,809 Stopped · 73.7% · reporting under 0.5 kn, or moored, anchored or aground
  • 100 Not reported · 0.3% · no speed and no usable navigational status

Speed over ground is a measurement; navigational status is typed in on the bridge. We use the measurement where we have one, fall back to the status where we do not, and count the rest as “not reported” rather than folding them into “stopped”.

Ship types

Categories of the vessels we can hear

All twelve categories, sorted by count, axis from zero in vessels heard. Each bar links to that category’s page.

Ship type reference
05,00010,00015,000Unknown: 14,476 vessels heard (37.1% of 39,069)Unknown14,476Cargo: 6,987 vessels heard (17.9% of 39,069)Cargo6,987Tanker: 3,158 vessels heard (8.1% of 39,069)Tanker3,158Passenger: 2,945 vessels heard (7.5% of 39,069)Passenger2,945Tug & tow: 2,668 vessels heard (6.8% of 39,069)Tug & tow2,668Other: 2,305 vessels heard (5.9% of 39,069)Other2,305Service: 1,788 vessels heard (4.6% of 39,069)Service1,788Pleasure craft: 1,751 vessels heard (4.5% of 39,069)Pleasure craft1,751Fishing: 1,643 vessels heard (4.2% of 39,069)Fishing1,643High-speed craft: 722 vessels heard (1.8% of 39,069)High-speed craft722Military: 355 vessels heard (0.9% of 39,069)Military355Sailing: 271 vessels heard (0.7% of 39,069)Sailing271vessels heard

Why “unknown” is so large

A vessel’s position comes in AIS message 1, 2 or 3, broadcast every few seconds. Itstype comes in a different transmission — message 5 for Class A, message 24 for Class B — which the standard sends roughly every six minutes. A ship that has just come into range of a receiver will therefore appear on the map with a position and no type until its next static report arrives, and a ship at the edge of range may never deliver one cleanly at all.

So “unknown” here means “we have not heard its static report yet”, not “this is a mystery vessel”. We keep it in the chart at full size because hiding it would make every other share look larger than it is.How AIS message types work →

Flag states

Top registries among the vessels we can hear

Read from the first three digits of each MMSI. Top 25 by count, axis from zero in vessels heard.

All flag states
02,0004,0006,0008,000Netherlands: 6,891 vessels heard (17.6% of 39,069)Netherlands6,891United States of America: 5,641 vessels heard (14.4% of 39,069)United States of America5,641Germany: 2,194 vessels heard (5.6% of 39,069)Germany2,194United Kingdom: 1,907 vessels heard (4.9% of 39,069)United Kingdom1,907Norway: 1,845 vessels heard (4.7% of 39,069)Norway1,845France: 1,644 vessels heard (4.2% of 39,069)France1,644Sweden: 962 vessels heard (2.5% of 39,069)Sweden962Canada: 958 vessels heard (2.5% of 39,069)Canada958Malta: 929 vessels heard (2.4% of 39,069)Malta929Belgium: 885 vessels heard (2.3% of 39,069)Belgium885Australia: 884 vessels heard (2.3% of 39,069)Australia884Marshall Islands: 849 vessels heard (2.2% of 39,069)Marshall Islands849Denmark: 849 vessels heard (2.2% of 39,069)Denmark849Liberia: 793 vessels heard (2.0% of 39,069)Liberia793Japan: 752 vessels heard (1.9% of 39,069)Japan752Spain: 664 vessels heard (1.7% of 39,069)Spain664Panama: 660 vessels heard (1.7% of 39,069)Panama660Greece: 603 vessels heard (1.5% of 39,069)Greece603Cayman Islands: 599 vessels heard (1.5% of 39,069)Cayman Islands599Singapore: 580 vessels heard (1.5% of 39,069)Singapore580Indonesia: 580 vessels heard (1.5% of 39,069)Indonesia580Italy: 543 vessels heard (1.4% of 39,069)Italy543Madeira: 498 vessels heard (1.3% of 39,069)Madeira498Hong Kong: 401 vessels heard (1.0% of 39,069)Hong Kong401Cyprus: 379 vessels heard (1.0% of 39,069)Cyprus379vessels heard

This ranks our reception, not the size of any national register. A flag that dominates here is a flag whose ships happen to be sailing where our receivers are listening. MMSIs that are not ship stations — coast stations, aids to navigation, emergency beacons — carry no readable flag and are excluded rather than guessed at.Reading an MMSI →

Fastest moving

Quickest vessels in the snapshot

VesselMMSISpeedCourseLast known position
ROSTRUM SAO PAULO63609338659.8 kn127°54° 5.720' N 38° 13.981' E
ALIOT27339019055.0 kn341°54° 5.732' N 38° 13.397' E
DOBRYNYA27335108054.5 kn86°54° 5.733' N 38° 13.808' E
XIN HAI TONG 80247731140054.0 kn14°54° 5.719' N 38° 13.443' E
Name not reported27353431053.9 kn87°54° 5.843' N 38° 13.697' E
WEI LAI53801254953.8 kn303°54° 5.550' N 38° 13.557' E
MARSHAL ROKOSSOVSKY27321486052.3 kn3°55° 5.109' N 19° 43.969' E
Name not reported48792896651.5 knNot reported48° 58.467' N 92° 56.985' E
Name not reported22723258751.2 kn116°52° 56.078' N 5° 2.324' E
CYCLADES24819500050.9 kn289°54° 21.658' N 37° 59.365' E
Name not reported24505806849.4 kn310°41° 41.773' S 85° 23.545' W
SEVEN ISLAND YUI43101493344.5 kn191°35° 19.477' N 139° 44.779' E

Ranked on speed over ground as the vessel reported it. Reports above60 kn are excluded as bad data rather than presented as record-breaking ships; 102.3 kn is the AIS “not available” sentinel, not a speed.

Reception density

Where we are hearing the most

Cell centre (2° grid)Vessels heard
51° 0.000' N 5° 0.000' E3,570
53° 0.000' N 5° 0.000' E3,201
49° 0.000' N 123° 0.000' W1,088
51° 0.000' N 3° 0.000' E1,021
47° 0.000' N 123° 0.000' W1,001
53° 0.000' N 9° 0.000' E786
37° 0.000' N 23° 0.000' E779
27° 0.000' N 81° 0.000' W713
53° 0.000' N 7° 0.000' E630
43° 0.000' N 7° 0.000' E566
23° 0.000' N 115° 0.000' E537
59° 0.000' N 11° 0.000' E508

These are the busiest two-degree cells in our snapshot. They map the receiver network as much as they map the traffic: a quiet cell may be a quiet sea or simply a coast nobody is listening from.

Aggregated from /api/fleet-stats, which reads the same snapshot the live map does. The page refreshes itself every minute and shows the age of what you are looking at. Where a field is missing we print “Not reported” — nothing here is estimated, interpolated or filled in.Our sources and their licences →