MarineTraffic

MarineTraffic is an open, community-based project, which provides real-time information on the movements of ships and the current location of ships in harbours and ports. A database of information on the vessels includes for example details of the location where they were built plus dimensions of the vessels, gross tonnage and International Maritime Organisation (IMO) number. Users can submit photographs of the vessels which other users can rate.
Vessel locations are shown on a Google Maps background using the Google Maps API, Nautical Charts and OpenStreetMap
The basic MarineTraffic service can be used without cost; more advanced functions are available subject to payment.
The site has six million unique visitors on a monthly basis. In April 2015, the service had 600 000 registered users.
How it works.
Data is gathered from in excess of 18,000 AIS equipped volunteer contributors in over 140 countries around the world. Information provided by AIS equipment, such as unique identification, position, course, and speed is then transferred to the main Marine Traffic servers for display via the website in real time. The site uses Google Maps as its base mapping.
History.
MarineTraffic was originally developed as an academic project at the University of the Aegean in Ermoupoli, Greece.
In late 2007, Professor Dimitris Lekkas published it as a trial version.
Community.
MarineTraffic is highly dependent from its community of radio amateurs or AIS Station owner, its photographers and translators.