Friday 13th July 2012
Some of you may have picked up that I'm a fan of "Deadliest Catch"...
The Discovery Channel show is recorded over several months of crab fishing during the winter and broadcast during the spring every year. By the time the show premieres in April, most of the boats are actually finished crab fishing for the season. So, how can you keep up with your favorite Deadliest Catch boats while they’re actually fishing? By using MarineTraffic.com. (MT)
With marinetraffic.com you can track a vessels while they are in the port of Dutch Harbor. The site currently does not track them once they leave the area. However, there is much you can do with the site. You can sign up for a free account that will allow you to build your own database of vessels. You can then set up alerts around your favorite boats to be alerted through text and email messages as they come in and out of range.
Marinetraffic.com allows you to track vessel positions based on AIS data (automatic identification system), this system along with marine radar are the primary methods used to avoid collisions for water transportation. AIS transceiver sends data every 2 to 10 seconds depending on a vessel’s speed while underway, and every 3 minutes while a vessel is at anchor, as long as the vessel has the transceiver turned on.
On the home page of marinetraffic.com you will find a live map and navigation area. This map of the world shows all reporting vessels; each green square shows a number which represents how many vessels are in that area. You can double click a square to zoom into the area or use the navigation panel on the left. If you type “Dutch Harbor” into the “Go to Port…” field you’ll quickly see “Dutch Harbor” pop up. The third box is for a certain vessel, type in the name of the vessel you are searching for and the system will tell you whether the boat is out of range or it will take you to the map directly related to the vessels location.
On top you will see four tabs – Live map, Vessels, Port and Gallery. Live map is the main page with the world map; Vessels & Ports tabs are a way to search for any registered vessel and most ports. The Gallery tab is a collection of photos submitted by members. Take a look at some of these beautiful boats! The tall ships are amazing.
Under the Live map tab there is four subfolders – world map, cover your area, FAQ file and Services. World map takes you back to the full coverage map, Cover your area is for those who want an AIS receiver and FAQ is of course, “frequently asked questions” answered. The final tab is useful as it contains apps for smart phones (for a fee), the ability to embed a map, Google earth, lighthouse directory, receiving stations and a discussion area.