Ships

Who is out on the water, near your postcode.

Ferries, tankers, fishing boats and yachts broadcasting their position right now - plotted around your postcode with speed, course and distance.

  • Live AIS positions
  • Bearing & distance
  • Any UK postcode

How this works

Ships over 300 tonnes, all passenger ships and many smaller craft carry an AIS transponder that broadcasts their identity, position, speed and course by VHF radio. Volunteer shore receivers pass those broadcasts to aisstream.io, which streams them on. Because it is a continuous stream rather than a lookup, the site listens for a short while, keeps the latest position of every vessel around the British Isles, and refreshes that snapshot every few minutes while someone is looking at this page. The time shown is the snapshot’s. A vessel that has not broadcast during the listening window is not shown, so a busy stretch of water can look quieter than it is.

Sources

  • Vessel positions: AIS broadcasts via aisstream.io (free tier, volunteer receivers).
  • Postcodes: postcodes.io / ONS Postcode Directory (OGL v3).

For interest only. Not for navigation, and not a complete picture of traffic.