MarineTraffic Vessel Scraper

Scrape MarineTraffic — the world's largest AIS ship-tracking network — into clean, structured records: vessel identity, live position, voyage, speed history, photos, area snapshots and port info. Pure HTTP: no browser, no login, no proxy.

What you get

One record per vessel (details bundle or area row) or port in the run's default dataset:

Field	Description
shipId, name, aisName	MarineTraffic's vessel id, name and AIS broadcast name
imo, mmsi, callsign	IMO number, MMSI and call sign
flag, flagCode, vesselType, subtype	Flag state, vessel type and subtype (e.g. Container Ship)
length, width, aisClass	Dimensions and AIS transponder class
lat, lon, speed, course, heading	Last AIS position, speed and course
draught, navigationalStatus	Draught and status (e.g. Underway using Engine)
positionUpdatedAt, areaName	When the position was reported and the sea area
reportedDestination, departurePortId, arrivalPortId	Voyage plan
departedAt, estimatedArrivalAt, voyageProgressPct	ATD, ETA and progress in percent
builderName, yearBuilt, description	Vessel wiki particulars
speedHistory, etaHistory, maxSpeed, avgSpeed	With Include speed history (last ~24h)
photoUrls	With Include photo URLs (up to 20)
url	The vessel's MarineTraffic page

Area scans return the AIS map fields instead: name, lat, lon, speed, course, heading, elapsedMinutes (age of the signal), destination, flag, length, width, dwt, shipType, plus shipId and url to fetch the full details later.

Port records carry portId, name, unlocode, country, countryCode, lat, lon, portType, size, timezone, summary, companies and url.

Example output

{
  "type": "vessel",
  "shipId": "5630138",
  "name": "EVER GIVEN",
  "imo": 9811000,
  "mmsi": 636026627,
  "flag": "LIBERIA",
  "vesselType": "Cargo - Hazard A (Major)",
  "length": 399.94,
  "lat": 32.49,
  "lon": -13.78,
  "speed": 19.6,
  "navigationalStatus": "Underway using Engine",
  "positionUpdatedAt": "2026-09-28T07:06:03+00:00",
  "reportedDestination": "SG SIN",
  "estimatedArrivalAt": "2026-10-23T17:00:00+00:00",
  "voyageProgressPct": 14.65,
  "url": "https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:5630138"
}

How to use

Vessel details — put a vessel name, MMSI or IMO into Vessel search term (e.g. EVER GIVEN, 636026627 or 9811000), or paste MarineTraffic shipIds into Vessel IDs to skip the search. Every match becomes a record with the full detail bundle.

Area snapshot — set Area center latitude, Area center longitude and Area radius (km) to get every vessel with a recent AIS signal inside that circle, e.g. the Singapore Strait (1.26, 103.85, radius 20). Busy waters return hundreds of vessels. The actor picks the map zoom automatically and filters rows to the exact radius.

Port info — paste port ids into Port IDs (e.g. 290 for Singapore) for port records with name, UN/LOCODE, country and companies.

Max vessels caps vessel records and area rows. Leave every input empty for a small default sample.

Typical runs

• Fleet monitoring — a list of vessel names or MMSIs, Include speed history on, scheduled daily.
• Area intelligence — a radius around a strait, port approach or fishing ground, one snapshot per run.
• Port research — port ids for identity, location and the companies operating there.
• Enrichment — area scan first, then feed the resulting shipIds back into Vessel IDs for full details.

Notes

• Positions are the last AIS signal the site publishes, not a live stream — a run is a snapshot. elapsedMinutes (area rows) tells you how fresh each signal is.
• MarineTraffic keeps expected arrivals, port calls, congestion and statistics behind a paid subscription, so this actor does not offer them. Voyage data (reportedDestination, ETA) comes from the public vessel pages instead.
• speedHistory is the recent speed curve the site shows, capped to the last 50 points.
• Runs are throttled with a small delay between requests and parallel workers; no proxy or browser is required.

Local development

pip install -r requirements.txt
python3 -m src --search "EVER GIVEN" --timeline --photos
python3 -m src --area 1.26,103.85,20 --limit 50
python3 -m src --ports 290 --json