Team Geared Up

AIS is a technology that was originally designed for collision avoidance. It stands for Automatic Identification System. The IMO requirement for all vessels over 299GT to carry an AIS transponder on board came into force in December 2004. Many other vessels carry them too, when they need to be identified by an authority or owner. It’s a little like a GPS transmitter that standardises how to give its location. All transmissions go to an AIS receiver that everyone can see.

So check this site out… AISLive.com. I subscribed to the free version and while it has an hours built in delay, it’s still very cool. You can see the worldwide location of all ships. The above screenshot is dublin bay, and you can clearly see the familiar names at dock (Arklow River is always moored there loading up cargo it seems!) and the Ulysses and Jonathan Swift are also in dock.

Very cool… no?

Thanks to reader ‘diverman’ for the tip-off.