NavList:

I love AIS for traffic management.  When I first was going through the English Channel in 2000, our radars were interfaced with GPS, so when we called another ship we read off their course and heading, as well as their location.  We then told them that we were the ship so many miles and at some bearing to them.  This was reasonably accurate, but a lengthy process.  Today with AIS, especially if they are interfaced with the radars (mine aren't unfortunately), you can call a ship by name and/or callsign and they can find you by name or callsign.  It makes for much clearer communications.

 

In addition to the name data, the AIS also computes a GPS-based set of CPA to augment the radar computed CPA.  The AIS also responds much quicker than the radar to changes in course and speed so gives a much quicker updated CPA after a course/speed change than does the radar.  Also, with an effective range of about 30-50 nm, you can tell a ship is a approaching well before the radar pip appears.

 

I hope that many small vessels spend the money on AIS.  I think that they should be able to rig an AIS to sound an alarm, for the sleeping solo sailor especially, indicating an approaching vessel and also warning that ship of their presence given the often poor radar returns of fiberglass boats.  I am confident that it would make the oceans a bit safer for all.

 

On the negative side of the coin, AIS signals all of that information to anyone with a receiver, including those persons wishing to do harm.  AIS is discouraged in the waters off Somalia because it pinpoints the position of possible victims to pirates in the area.

 

Jeremy

 

Marinetraffic.com is one of several such sites. Others include: vesseltracker.com, aislive.com and shipais.com.

Although to the casual observer it may serve as little more than a time-killing curiosity, these sites are marketing their data to shipping interests who are eager for live data. (Most shipping companies already have other sources of live data on their own ships.) For example, a blog on marketing for the shipping industry just posted on the value of these sites to sales efforts:

http://5956n.typepad.com/59_56_n/2010/02/marine-traffic-hogs-shiptracking-sites-are-booming.html

Additionally, I imagine these data streams are already in use by government policy makers on a wide variety of fronts.

Carl Herzog

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