
A Map Showing Every Cargo Ship - mrb
http://digg.com/2016/every-ship-in-the-world
======
cvarjas
[https://www.shipmap.org/](https://www.shipmap.org/)

------
namenotrequired
I expected this to be [http://marinetraffic.com/](http://marinetraffic.com/)
which shows current/recent locations. But I'm not sure if it shows every
single cargo ship in the world.

~~~
kirrent
Every ship within range of an AIS receiving station. There are deadspots far
out and see and behind obstructions.

~~~
roshanj
Yep, terrestrial AIS receivers can only receive messages from ships that are
less than ~50 nautical miles off the coast. Further out than that and you need
satellite-based AIS data.

(I'm an engineer at Spire, we've launched a constellation of nanosatellites
that does exactly that:
[https://spire.com/products/sense/](https://spire.com/products/sense/) )

~~~
espadrine
The website is extremely clear. I am wondering a few further things.

What network design is used to communicate between the satellites? I presume
that they don't all go at the same speed in the same direction, so the network
layout must be flexible, right?

Also, what is their size? You called them nanosatellites, can they really be a
hundred nanometers big? How are they powered, and how are they put out of
commission?

~~~
roshanj
Correct, our constellation uses several different types of orbits to achieve
global coverage. The satellites don't communicate directly with one another
but rather through a globally distributed network of groundstations. When a
satellite passes within view of one of our groundstations we are able to
downlink the AIS data which then gets processed and delivered to customers.

Ah yes! I think the term "nanosatellites" is a bit confusing--it refers to
satellites between 1 and 10 kg
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miniaturized_satellite#Nanosat...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miniaturized_satellite#Nanosatellites)).
Ours are 3U cubesats so they are about 30cm long. Much bigger than a hundred
nanometers!

They have solar panels which are used to charge batteries, and since they are
in low-earth-orbit they will eventually de-orbit and burn up on reentry after
several years. The FCC actually requires that cubesats re-enter the atmosphere
within 25 years.

------
em3rgent0rdr
"Burning massive quantities of bunker fuel. The result is a huge amount of
CO2...commercial ships produce more than a million tons of CO2 every day."

Narrator is unnecessarily alarmist here, and sounds like we should be
concerned about the contribution of cargo ships to the greenhouse. I would say
we should celebrate the shipping industry for being so much more beneficial to
humanity per unit of CO2.

~~~
knowaveragejoe
I don't see how it's alarmist to note the fact that they are by far and away
one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gasses as a group. I think they
could do better, and we wouldn't pay that much more as consumers for a lot of
the goods, unless the biggest overhead really _is_ with shipping.

~~~
em3rgent0rdr
"they are by far and away one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gasses
as a group."

Wrong. Shipping is the most efficient transportation of mass-distance per unit
of CO2. Shipping's CO2 contribution is only %3-%4 of total CO2 produced by
humans.

~~~
draggnar
But in terms of particulate emissions it is very significant. Upwards of 60%
of total sulphur emissions and accounts for over 60,000 deaths per year. At
room temperature you can walk across the surface of the fuel. It is nasty
stuff and the scale is quite large.

------
cjslep
A couple of observations I thought were interesting:

Very few ships travel around the southern tip of South America

A corrupted data point sends it flying across Russia and into Southern Europe.

A lone ship travelling to Svalbard.

Multiple ships travelling in rivers deep into Russia.

Control of the nine-dash-line area would yield huge economic influence to the
controller.

~~~
sitharus
The southern tip of South America is known as Cape Horn
([https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Horn](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Horn)).
It's an unpredictable and dangerous area, hence the popularity of the Panama
Canal.

Russia is huge, hence a lot of river shipping.

Control of the seas would bring a lot of influence, hence the British control
of Gibraltar and the complex history of the Suez Canal.

~~~
ChoHag
> Control of the seas would bring a lot of influence, hence the British

You can stop there.

------
phantom_oracle
Can someone explain the logic of why ships in the Pacific sail in an upward-
curvature between Japan and the USA? (they move upwards and then down)?

Or is that just a flaw of 2D-mapping?

~~~
lionyo
Yes, here's a picture & explanation:
[http://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/6822/why-is-the-
strai...](http://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/6822/why-is-the-straight-
line-path-across-continent-so-curved)

------
sandworm101
>> The map is built from data showing ship locations in 2012, so it's not
exactly what things look like today, but it's a pretty close approximation.

What were oil prices then? What are they now? What is the state of piracy
then? What is is now? Interesting, but I suggest that the really interesting
details aren't to be found on this map.

------
canjobear
I'm amazed to see ships navigating into Siberia up the Lena. I thought the
deltas of the Siberian rivers were impassable.

~~~
grendelt
I'm just amazed someone still gets content from Digg!

~~~
throwaway1974
I thought they were dead myself, they really missed the boat in creating the
original reddit type site

------
gorkemyurt
Wow Singapore, Istanbul and which I believe is Rotterdam has crazy traffic.
And basically all of Japan and China :)

------
akhilcacharya
Dumb question, but what's the term for the moving marker? Or are they just 2x2
px leaflet markers?

------
billforsternz
I don't know if it's a quirk of my desktop/Chrome setup but I cannot resize it
to reveal possibly the most dynamic trade routes in the world around Japan and
Eastern China. Disappointing.

~~~
billforsternz
For the record, I am an idiot who couldn't figure out how to click and drag.

------
mmel
There seem to be a consistent route of ships travelling overland from Tunis
across the top of Algeria.

------
cdevs
Sweet data eye candy, I would love to have a near live version on a screen on
my wall.

------
EliasJorgensen
Pirates are gonna love this.

~~~
dalke
Pirates already know about AIS.
[http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-24586394](http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-24586394)

------
enraged_camel
Is there a way to make the map fullscreen?

~~~
cromulent
[https://www.shipmap.org](https://www.shipmap.org)

------
Aelinsaar
The constant exchange between the west coast of the US and Japan is so
regular!

