UK Marine Traffic

The tracks of fishing boats off the coast of Cornwall

One of my favorite real-time vehicle tracking maps is Marine Traffic, which shows the live positions and tracks of boats around the world. It is always fascinating to explore the major shipping lanes in and around coastal waters that emerge on Marine Traffic. One thing that never occurred to me when using Marine Traffic is that different types of marine vessels obviously use different routes and engage in different types of marine journeys.

The different types of routes and journeys taken by different types of marine vessel can be seen in a new series of maps by Alasdair Rae. In Watching the Ships Go By Alasdair has created a series of static maps showing the vessel tracks of different types of vessel in the coastal waters around the UK. These include maps showing the different type of marine traffic and shipping routes taken by cargo ships, passenger ships, fishing boats, high speed craft, military vessels, tankers and recreational craft.

Each of these individual vessel maps is fascinating (and beautiful) in its own right. For example the fishing vessel map reveals not only where British waters are being fished but the ports around the UK which are still active centers for marine fishing.

Also See


Shipmap.org - an animated map visualizing the movements of the global merchant shipping fleet over the course of 2012.

Global Fishing Watch - tracks over 35,000 commercial fishing vessels around the world in near real-time in order to help monitor global fishing and protect fish stocks, which are threatened by over-fishing, illegal fishing and habitat destruction.

Billionaires on the Sea - Forbes's interactive map shows the journeys around the world taken by a number of super-yachts owned by the super-rich during 2017.