Finland Digitraffic Marine AIS Scraper

Finland Digitraffic Marine AIS Scraper

Scrape real-time AIS vessel positions and metadata from the Finnish Digitraffic Marine API, up to a million vessels per run. Each record includes MMSI, coordinates, speed, heading, and optional vessel name, ship type, and destination. No API key required. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency broadcasts live AIS data for every vessel in and near Finnish waters, but polling the raw MQTT stream or building a parser takes engineering time. This Actor reads the public Digitraffic Marine REST endpoints directly, filters by MMSI or a geographic bounding box, and returns each vessel position in one flat, predictable schema. You get the same data that powers the national maritime traffic map, ready for analysis.

Who uses it	What they scrape Finland Digitraffic Marine AIS for
Maritime analysts	Monitor vessel traffic density in the Baltic Sea and Finnish archipelagos.
Logistics coordinators	Track specific ships by MMSI to estimate port arrival times in Helsinki, Turku, or Kotka.
Environmental researchers	Map ship movements near sensitive marine areas to study emissions or noise patterns.
Port authorities	Watch anchorage zones and fairway approaches for real-time situational awareness.

What it does

This Actor collects live AIS vessel positions from the Finnish Digitraffic Marine API and returns each vessel as a flat row with coordinates, speed, heading, and optional enriched metadata.

• 🗺️ Geographic bounding box: filter vessels by min and max latitude and longitude to watch a single port, a fairway, or the entire Gulf of Finland.
• 🆔 MMSI filter: supply a list of Maritime Mobile Service Identities and return only the vessels you care about, ignoring all other traffic.
• 📋 Vessel metadata enrichment: join each position to the Digitraffic vessel registry to get the ship name, type, call sign, IMO number, and declared destination.
• 📡 Flat row output: every vessel position arrives as one row with a fixed schema, ready for a spreadsheet, database, or dashboard.

Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.

What you can do with Finland Digitraffic Marine AIS data

🚢 Monitor a single vessel.

A logistics coordinator enters the MMSI of a cargo ship and watches its position, speed, and destination update every run to refine the estimated time of arrival at the Port of Helsinki.

🗺️ Watch a port anchorage.

A port authority sets a tight bounding box around the Turku anchorage and collects every vessel at anchor to track congestion and plan berth assignments.

📊 Map traffic density.

A maritime researcher pulls all vessels in the Gulf of Bothnia over several days, then plots the coordinates to identify high-traffic fairways and quiet zones.

🌊 Protect a marine area.

An environmental analyst filters a bounding box over a protected archipelago and logs every vessel that enters, along with its ship type and speed, to flag potential violations.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
No API key	The Digitraffic Marine API is open. You do not register an app or manage tokens.
Live positions	Data comes straight from the national AIS network with the same latency as the official map.
Enriched metadata	Optionally join vessel name, ship type, destination, call sign, and IMO number.
Flexible export	Save results as CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML for your existing workflow.

How it compares

No other Store actor targets Finland Digitraffic Marine AIS the same way, so the honest comparison is with the alternatives teams actually weigh.

	Finland Digitraffic Marine AIS Scraper	Build it in-house	By hand
Setup	Run it now, zero config	Days of engineering	None, but hours per pull
When Finland Digitraffic Marine AIS changes	Maintained for you	You fix it	You re-learn the page
Proxies, retries, anti-bot	Built in	Your problem	Browser only
Output	Fixed JSON schema, CSV/Excel export	Whatever you build	Copy-paste
Cost	Pay per result	Engineering time	Analyst hours

Configure the run

Drive the Actor with an optional geographic bounding box and an optional MMSI list, alone or together, and filters run as each position is read so only matching vessels reach your dataset. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
  "maxItems": 10,
  "mmsiFilter": []
}

A larger pull:

{
  "maxItems": 200,
  "mmsiFilter": []
}

Pricing

Pay-per-result: $0.011 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.

Results collected	Approximate cost
100 results	$1.10
1,000 results	$11.00
10,000 results	$110.00

New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.

Free users

Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. Upgrade your Apify plan to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

Run it

1. Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
2. Open the Finland Digitraffic Marine AIS Scraper.
3. Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
4. Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the Dataset tab.

Run it programmatically through the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the ApifyClient for JavaScript and Python.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Give an AI agent live access to Finland Digitraffic Marine AIS through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:

$claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/finland-digitraffic-marine-ais-scraper"

Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.

Troubleshooting

I get zero results even though I know there are ships in the area.

Check your bounding box values. The min/max latitude and longitude must form a valid rectangle with min values smaller than max values. Also confirm your MMSI filter, if set, contains correct nine-digit MMSI numbers.

The vessel name column is empty.

Make sure the 'Include Vessel Metadata' checkbox is enabled. If it is on and names are still missing, the vessel may not be in the Finnish registry or its MMSI may not match a known record.

I only got 10 vessels but I am a paid user.

Check the 'Maximum vessels' input. It defaults to 10. Set it to a higher number, up to 1,000,000, to collect more vessels.

The coordinates look wrong or are missing.

AIS positions depend on the vessel's GPS receiver and the coastal station that picked up the signal. Some vessels may have stale or missing coordinates if they are out of range or their transponder is off.

FAQ

Question	Answer
Do I need an API key or a Digitraffic account?	No. The Finnish Digitraffic Marine API is open data. This Actor calls the public REST endpoints and does not require registration, authentication, or a token.
What area does this cover?	It covers all vessels that broadcast AIS and are within range of the Finnish coastal receiver network, which includes the Baltic Sea, the Gulf of Finland, the Gulf of Bothnia, and the Finnish archipelagos. You can further restrict results with the bounding box filters.
How fresh is the position data?	The Actor reads the latest known position from the Digitraffic API, which updates every few seconds for most vessels. Each run returns a snapshot of the current situation.
Can I get the vessel name and destination?	Yes. Enable the 'Include Vessel Metadata' option and the Actor will join each MMSI to the Digitraffic vessel registry, adding the ship name, type, call sign, IMO number, and declared destination to every row.
How do I track one specific ship?	Add its MMSI to the MMSI Filter list. The Actor will return only that vessel, ignoring all other traffic in the area.
What is the maximum number of vessels I can get?	Paid users can request up to 1,000,000 vessels per run. Free users are limited to a preview of 10 vessels.
Can I schedule this to run every few minutes?	Yes. Use an Apify schedule to run the Actor at any interval you need, from every minute to once a day, and stream the results to a dashboard or database.
What export formats are supported?	You can export your dataset as CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML from the Apify platform.
Does this include historical AIS data?	No. This Actor reads the live position endpoint. For historical AIS tracks you would need a different data source.

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Browse the full ParseForge collection for more scrapers.

🆘 Need help? Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.

⚠️ Disclaimer. This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Fintraffic. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.