# Vesselfinder Live Map Scraper (`romy/vesselfinder-live-map-scraper`) Actor

Scrape live vessel (AIS) positions from VesselFinder by area (lat/lon/radius), with optional full detail: speed, course, destination, ETA, IMO, photo. No login, no browser.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/romy/vesselfinder-live-map-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Romy](https://apify.com/romy) (community)
- **Categories:** Travel, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 3 total users, 2 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.56 / 1,000 vessel positions

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## VesselFinder Live Map Scraper

Scrape live vessel (AIS) positions from [VesselFinder](https://www.vesselfinder.com)
near any point on Earth, with optional full detail per vessel: speed,
course, destination, ETA, country, IMO and a photo. Wraps VesselFinder's own
public "Embed Map" API -- the same one embedded on thousands of third-party
sites and apps. No login, no browser, no proxy needed.

### Why

VesselFinder's embed-map widget (`static.vesselfinder.net/web/vfem5/...`)
calls two genuinely public, unauthenticated endpoints -- verified live
2026-09-28 with plain curl from a home IP, no special headers, no cookies,
no referer check required:

- `GET /api/pub/mp2?bbox=...&zoom=...` -- bulk vessel positions in a
  bounding box, as a compact binary feed. The record layout was
  reverse-engineered from VesselFinder's own embed-map JavaScript and
  cross-checked against a real vessel's position/course/speed as shown in a
  live third-party tracking app's UI at the same moment -- every field
  matched exactly.
- `GET /api/embed/v5/click/{mmsi}` -- one vessel's snapshot (name, IMO,
  country, speed, course, destination, ETA, photo) as clean JSON.

**What the bulk position feed does NOT include**: course, speed and a
timestamp are only present for one "selected" vessel per call, not every
vessel in the area -- a real upstream limitation, not a gap in this actor's
parsing. Enable `scrapeDetail` to fetch those fields for every result via
the second endpoint.

**Coordinates**: the bounding box VesselFinder expects is `lonMin,latMin,
lonMax,latMax` in WGS84 degrees multiplied by 600,000 and floored to an
integer -- this actor builds it for you from a plain `lat`/`lon`/`radiusKm`
input, so you never need to construct it by hand.

### Input

| Field          | Type      | Default | Description                                                   |
| -------------- | --------- | ------- | ------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `lat`          | `number`  | --      | Center latitude to search around. Required.                   |
| `lon`          | `number`  | --      | Center longitude to search around. Required.                  |
| `radiusKm`     | `integer` | `50`    | Half-width of the search box around lat/lon, in km.           |
| `zoom`         | `integer` | `8`     | Map zoom level, 3-12 (capped -- see Known limitations).       |
| `maxVessels`   | `integer` | `200`   | Stop after this many unique vessels, nearest first.           |
| `scrapeDetail` | `boolean` | `false` | Also fetch speed/course/destination/ETA/IMO/photo per vessel. |

### Output

One dataset row per vessel, nearest to `lat`/`lon` first:

`mmsi`, `name`, `lat`, `lon`, `typeCode` (an undocumented upstream
type/status byte -- exposed as-is, not guessed), `distanceKm` (from the
query center).

With `scrapeDetail`: `imo`, `countryCode`, `country`, `type` (a real
human-readable string, e.g. `"Crude Oil Tanker"`), `speedKn`, `courseDeg`,
`destination`, `etaTimestamp`, `etaIso`, `photoUrl`.

### Pricing

Pay-Per-Event, standard tiered ladder
(FREE/BRONZE/SILVER/GOLD/PLATINUM/DIAMOND = 100/92/85/78/72/68%):

| Event                                                         | FREE tier |
| ------------------------------------------------------------- | --------- |
| `vessel-position-scraped` (per vessel row)                    | $0.002    |
| `vessel-detail-scraped` (per vessel whose detail was fetched) | $0.008    |

### Known limitations

- **`zoom` is capped at 12.** VesselFinder's binary format switches to a
  richer per-vessel "hull shape" record layout above some client-side zoom
  threshold, meant for pixel-space map rendering -- not reverse-engineered
  here. Every zoom this actor was tested against (8) stayed in the simple
  position-only layout this parser expects; a lower zoom also naturally
  covers a wider area with fewer, less cluttered results.
- **`typeCode` is a raw, undocumented byte** from the upstream feed (vessel
  type and/or navigational status, bit-packed with other flags this actor
  does not decode). It is exposed as-is rather than guessed into a
  human-readable label that might be wrong. `scrapeDetail`'s `type` field
  (e.g. `"Crude Oil Tanker"`, `"Sailing vessel"`) is a real string from
  VesselFinder and safe to treat as accurate.
- **No text search.** This actor takes a location, not a vessel name/IMO/
  MMSI. VesselFinder's own app has a working text search, but it uses a
  different, paid backend (`api.vesselapi.com`) that requires a key this
  actor does not have.

# Actor input Schema

## `lat` (type: `number`):

Center latitude to search around, e.g. 36.14 (Strait of Gibraltar).

## `lon` (type: `number`):

Center longitude to search around, e.g. -5.35 (Strait of Gibraltar).

## `radiusKm` (type: `integer`):

Half-width of the search area around lat/lon, in kilometers.

## `zoom` (type: `integer`):

Map zoom level (3-12). Higher zoom returns fewer, more clustered-free vessels for a given area; not the same as area size, which is set by radiusKm.

## `maxVessels` (type: `integer`):

Stop after this many unique vessels, nearest to lat/lon first.

## `scrapeDetail` (type: `boolean`):

Also fetch each vessel's speed, course, destination, ETA, country, IMO and photo. Slower and billed per detail.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "lat": 36.14,
  "lon": -5.35,
  "radiusKm": 50,
  "zoom": 8,
  "maxVessels": 200,
  "scrapeDetail": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `dataset` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("romy/vesselfinder-live-map-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("romy/vesselfinder-live-map-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{}' |
apify call romy/vesselfinder-live-map-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,romy/vesselfinder-live-map-scraper"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/taKnAkLfGMhRswe5a/builds/pgkGC2J5svhwepeOy/openapi.json