How to Use the Real-Time Ship Tracking Page

Viewing Ship Movements

When you load the Real-Time Ship Tracking page, there will be a short delay while recent ship positions are transferred to your computer. When the data transfer is complete, the ship display will begin.

The time of the currently displayed positions appears below the chart. To restart from the earliest time available, click the Rewind button. Note: clicking Rewind does not cause new data to be loaded. To show the most recent data, reload the page by clicking your Web browser's Refresh button.

The legend in the upper right corner shows the type of ship represented by each color. Hover over the tab to display the legend for a few seconds.

Click the Pause button to suspend the animation; then click Play to restart it.

You can adjust the speed of the animation by dragging the slider left or right.

Real-Time Display

The display normally shows a time-lapse animation of the most recent one hour of ship movements. If you're looking out a window at the bay at the same time you're watching the map, you may prefer the real-time display; just click the Real-Time button at the lower left. The positions will then be updated about every 10 seconds. (There's a delay of 2 or 3 minutes from the actual positions.)

Viewing Information About a Ship

To view information about a ship, such as its type, speed, and size, point to the arrow representing that ship on the chart.

Tip: Click the Pause button to stop the ship movements first to make it easier to select a ship.

Note that the information shown about each ship, as well as its positions, is entirely beyond our control; the data is entered by the ship's officers or technicians into the ship's AIS transponder. Often this information is inaccurate or incomplete. For example, it is common to see a ship with a status of "moored" even though it is moving at 8 kts. In addition, the destinations and ETA sometimes are not entered at all, or are not updated after the ship has arrived and subsequently left on another voyage.

Ships heading to a berth in the bay should be providing a destination code in accordance with the USCG naming scheme; see the Vessel Traffic Service list of berth codes and the VTS destination codes to find specific locations.

Zooming in on a Particular Region

To zoom in on a smaller region, click one of the Zoom In buttons on the left for the desired region (San Francisco, Richmond, or Oakland/Alameda).

Showing a Single Ship's Movements

To show only an individual ship, click the check box labeled Choose Ship, and then choose the ship name in the pop-up menu that appears. Click on any ship in the menu to show only that ship on the chart. (Note that if you are zoomed in, the pop-up list of ships still shows all ships on the bay, so selected ships may not be visible.)

View the Complete List of Ships

Scroll down below the map (or click here) to see a complete list of all the ships that our AIS receiver has detected since it began operation on April 18, 2006. This list shows the name, type, and length of each ship, as well as the date and time it was last detected on the bay.

Have a Question, Comment, or Correction?

Please fill in the Contact Form to send us a message.