
Vessel Finder - Mosiout1936
https://marinetraffic24.com/pt/vesselfinder/
======
ghgr
I've been wondering if using such exhaustive datasets would allow to discover
the existing supply chain routes (which is usually a closed guarded trade
secret). For that I would model the truck, ship and freight train traffic as
edges, and mines/factories/companies as nodes in a graph. The weight of each
edge is proportional to the number of containers that flow through it per unit
of time. The question is, would it be possible to statistically infer the
interdependence among nodes?

I started it and so far I got nice visualizations of air and maritime traffic.
I should resume it when I find some time.

~~~
superice
At my previous employer we had two people working on data analytics for
container barge traffic within the Rhine delta in the Netherlands and Germany.
They were able to overlay their predictions with the partial barge plannings
that we actually had because we supplied software to inland container
terminals.

Conclusion was that yes, you can predict locations of the terminals, but it's
quite hard to find and produce repetitive schedules from the data because it
requires the ships not change their schedule for too long, and the reality is
just too dynamic to properly predict this.

For seagoing vessels I expect that they have more predictable schedules, but
the hard part there is knowing container volumes, because there is no way to
predict from public data what the volume of containers loaded/discharged is at
a specific terminal. The closest metric is measuring the turnaround time of
the ship, but that is not a great predictor for number of containers moved
because handling times per container will differ per port, as will the number
of cranes assigned to the ship, as will the ratio between 20ft and 40ft boxes,
as well as the capability per port to do twinning (picking up 2x20ft boxes in
one handling) and dual-cycling (discharging and loading a container as part of
the same crane cycle).

Basically: it's a tough problem, with too many variables you cannot reasonably
deduce.

(Also, even if you have the container volumes, I personally think the highest
potential for optimization is in the hinterland, but that's a different story
altogether)

~~~
bkor
> because there is no way to predict from public data what the volume of
> containers loaded/discharged is at a specific terminal

It's doable for a competitor. AIS has the vessels depth. If you assume the
weight of a container to be similar you can monitor the vessels depth as they
discharge and then load containers. You'll have to account for bunkering,
empty containers, etc. Still, it's doable.

There's also some data (not sure if public, should be easy for any shipping
company) for anything going to the US. You can use that data to further
improve the previous estimates. See [https://www.joc.com/regulation-
policy/trade-data/united-stat...](https://www.joc.com/regulation-policy/trade-
data/united-states-trade-data). Interestingly the JOC is terrible at
predicting future trends despite having one of the most detailed data on their
trade.

Note: the method above will not give you exact numbers. It's not actually
needed to know the exact numbers, seeing the trends and the
fluctuations/changes is already quite useful.

~~~
tda
Vessel depth (draught) is usually (or always) a static number;hard coded in
the ais transponder and never again uodated and thus provides zero
information. The only somewhat reliable data are position and heading and
their derivatives. Next to that you can get something out of the broadcast
frequency, and that's about it. Of course the data can and is easily
manipulated by some, and the broadcast is lossy so sometimes a few bits get
lost or mangled in transit, there is no proper error correction in the
protocol

------
the_cramer
Fun fact - some ships turn off their AIS while being on seas and they are
allowed to do so (non-commercial) which is a pain if you are sailing one
handed or in bad weather conditions (fog).

~~~
082349872349872
[https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/if-it-is-grey-stay-
away/46521](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/if-it-is-grey-stay-away/46521)

~~~
the_cramer
I do not understand. What is the point of this?

~~~
082349872349872
Sorry, I'd thought you were referring to navy (non-commercial) ships.

Cue the I'm an admiral / I'm a lighthouse "give way" joke[1]. As of 2020 we've
learned (open source: reuters) that naval vessels may be deadly in hot wars,
but don't do so well in full and frank discussions ('shouldering' when grey on
grey) with either cargo vessels or arctic-hulled vessels.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPqtwV5utUY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPqtwV5utUY)

Back in fax-spam days, the USN even officially responded to this joke:

“The first time I heard of it was — oh, let’s see, how long — about 10 years
ago or so, I think. That story’s so old,” [LANTFLT spokesman, Cmdr. Kevin]
Wensing said, “it probably started out back in the galleon days, or back when
there was a big lighthouse at Alexandria, Egypt.”

~~~
the_cramer
Not sure about true data, but i could imagine that cargo vessels are involved
in a majority of accidents on sea. They are - fast - like really fast. You
cannot outrun them with your sailboat, even with engines. And they won't
change course, because they cant. If they turn the rudder, they need to wait
for some 2 miles for it to take effect. Suprisingly many sailors don't know
that or neglect it.

So next time there is a war, just send dem cargo ships.

~~~
topbanana
All the deaths in my area are involve fishing boats and pleasure craft.

As a sailboat you are the stand-on vessel so you really shouldn't maneuver.
They will see you. They can and frequently do make course adjustments to avoid
other traffic.

~~~
CalChris
No, not in all situations, for instance traffic separation zones and
restricted water.

[https://ptyc.net/wp-content/uploads/Do-Sailing-Vessels-
Alway...](https://ptyc.net/wp-content/uploads/Do-Sailing-Vessels-Always-Have-
the-Right-of-Way-Over-Ferries-.pdf)

That said, I’ve been yelled at while racing when crossing ferry pilots. I had
the right of way and they had the tonnage.

~~~
the_cramer
Well ferry vessels have special rights, you should be careful. But every big
ship will eventually turn, but they'll always scare you. Especially sailors,
they don't like sailors...

------
reallymental
Never assumed the day where I would have intimate knowledge of HN topic would
arise.

This is my space. A very crowded space, and incredibly chaotic, where data is
outright wrong most of the time.

Personally, I don't prediction should be the end goal of these analyses,
tracking and anomaly prediction would give more insight to the traders etc.

But of course I would only say this cause prediction is hard in this space.

DL (Deep Learning) Et al. don't really help. Traditional stats is more likely
to be helpful in this case.

------
eitland
How is this related to marinetraffic.com? I see the map seems to be loaded
from marinetraffic.co, but otherwise no results on a quick search.

------
brk
I run one of the AIS stations that contributes to this. Of course, "RUN" is a
bit of an overstatement, the little rPi unit basically just sits there
unattended and feeds data received into the system without much need for any
attention from me.

I am in the process of adding an uplink from my AIS650 on my boat to also send
data received while underway, but need to finish up some other projects first.

I do not have much use for the commercial data side of this, but looking at
past routes of various pleasure craft going to or from places I want to go can
be informative for planning routes.

~~~
pletnes
Any details how this works and is set up? Just for curiosity. I imagine it’s a
hobby project of some sort?

------
afvictory
It's been a while since I have worked in this space but the underlying
protocol (AIS) is incredibly lacking in terms of security due to the nature of
plain text transmission & lack of authentication. I'm not sure if these issues
have been addressed but below is some great research from 2014 on the matter
[1][2].

[1]
[https://www.blackhat.com/docs/asia-14/materials/Balduzzi/Asi...](https://www.blackhat.com/docs/asia-14/materials/Balduzzi/Asia-14-Balduzzi-
AIS-Exposed-Understanding-Vulnerabilities-And-Attacks.pdf)

[2]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rt9dzu3I7U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rt9dzu3I7U)

~~~
kasperni
The payload length for a single AIS slot is 168 bit. So there is really no
room for any kind of security headers.

------
jamessb
I'm not sure why the link is to the Portugese version of the page.

The link is currently:
[https://marinetraffic24.com/pt/vesselfinder/](https://marinetraffic24.com/pt/vesselfinder/)

The English language page is:
[https://marinetraffic24.com/vesselfinder/](https://marinetraffic24.com/vesselfinder/)

Hopefully a moderator like dang can edit the link.

------
kelchm
Is it just me or does this not work correctly in Firefox? The map loads, but
no points are visible.

Seems to work as expected in Chrome.

------
pjc50
I love using [https://www.vesselfinder.com/](https://www.vesselfinder.com/) to
identify what I can see in the Firth of Forth. It looks like the cluster of
parked cruise ships has gone. Wonder if they've resumed service?

~~~
joncrane
I just saw an article that indicates that cruise ships plan on resuming
service August 1st, but it was just a headline. I did not read the article to
see what country/ies that date refers to.

------
pella
openseamap view ( OpenStreetMap + Marine Traffic ) :

[http://map.openseamap.org/?zoom=9&lat=35.98913&lon=-5.41849&...](http://map.openseamap.org/?zoom=9&lat=35.98913&lon=-5.41849&layers=BFTFFTTFFTF0TFFTFFFFFF)

~~~
082349872349872
The two-layer feature of the Strait of Gibraltar:

[https://books.google.ch/books?id=nUtLDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA46&lpg=PA...](https://books.google.ch/books?id=nUtLDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA46&lpg=PA46&dq=gibraltar+submarines+two+layers&source=bl&ots=JnZe_DP9i_&sig=ACfU3U0FP7saZroG0_PRnvahtDZ2I2o-Cg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj-
pv6ksszqAhWqyKYKHbydB3sQ6AEwDHoECA0QAQ#v=onepage&q=gibraltar%20submarines%20two%20layers&f=false)

meant that submarines used to be able to pass in both directions with engines
off.

Still physically possible, but no longer worthwhile:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23548220](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23548220)

------
082349872349872
Nice to see a more normal tanker distribution now. Back when WTI crashed, they
were all hugging the coasts if not outright parked.

(this also makes obvious why the Suez Crisis was so important. I use it as a
marker for the UK/US hegemony boundary.)

