This is quite cool, it's a live map showing all shipping in the word(the link is to our area), there's a hell of a lot of ships... http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/
Made my nephews day with this - his Nana and Grandad are flying back home at the moment and he is now tracking their flight
I spent 9 years flying maritime patrol aircraft, the AIS really made life easier when we had to go out and look for specific ships. I seem to remember that all ships over 300t displacement have to have it.
I look at it now and again to see where the old ships I used to work on are. Here's one - currently in Juneau, Alaska. http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/shipdetails.aspx?MMSI=310405000
I work for a shipping company on BP saltend , and the ships coming on/off bp jetty I actually control and order on/off, so I use marinetraffic on a daily basis! and if anybody is bored at 2am, pop down to Paull car park, the ambassador norris is sailing and thats about as big a ship as you will see this side of the river (much bigger over in immingham) but no real viewing areas.
also www.humber.com shows all planned shipping traffic for ships passing in/ out king george dock/saltend if anybody wants to go to any of the viewing areas.
Yes it is more of a safety thing than anything else, watching the world shipping is a secondary advantage,as it sends out an alarm if the AIS for a particular ship suddenly disappears.
The first time I saw this plane tracking a few years ago, was when I was going to LA to see some family we have there. It scared me to death the amount of planes flying around the California area, they look as if they are crashing into each other. Obviously it does show the altitude they are flying at.
No but if you sit in Starbucks having a coffee in the McArthur Glen factory outlet near York as I did today, you don't need any tracking.
Don't I know it. Before I've had chance to eye up me first target, another half dozen approach from all sides. The birds in that art collage out the back are legal right?
