The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association’s Marine Cadastral Tool allows you to download 16 years of detailed daily ship movements and a “passage count” map generated from one year’s worth of data showing each ship’s cumulative route. All data is collected from ground stations along the coasts of the United States.
I downloaded all the 2023 maritime traffic maps and loaded them into geographic information system software called QGIS to visualize this year’s maritime traffic.
The map is abstract and electric. The imprint of a ship whose landmass has been removed resembles a sparkler, a high-energy particle strike, or a long-exposure photograph of a fiber optic wire.
Data: NOAA;Map: John Keegan / Beautiful Public Data
Data: NOAA;Map: John Keegan / Beautiful Public Data
Data: NOAA;Map: John Keegan / Beautiful Public Data
Data: NOAA;Map: John Keegan / Beautiful Public Data
If you zoom in on these maps, you may see strange geometric patterns such as perfect circles or grid lines. Some of these are fishing grounds, others are scientific surveys to map the ocean floor, and others specifically represent boats going to and from offshore oil rigs off the Louisiana Gulf Coast.
Hide in plain sight
Having a global, near-real-time system for tracking the exact movements of every ship at sea seems like a great innovation, unless you want to keep ship movements and cargo secret.