MarineTraffic Live Ship Tracker

Get live ship positions from MarineTraffic for any area of sea — position, speed, course, heading, ship type, size, and destination — with optional full ship details (MMSI, IMO, tonnage, TEU, year built, home port) and voyage info (destination, ETA, ports). No account or login required.

Why use this actor

• Live AIS positions for any area — give a center point and a zoom level.
• Optional MMSI & IMO — the unique vessel identifiers, plus call sign, ship type, gross tonnage, deadweight, TEU, year built, and home port.
• Optional voyage info — reported destination, ETA, departure/arrival ports, draught, and progress.
• Wide-area coverage — a grid radius collects many map tiles around your center and de-duplicates ships.
• Clear last-seen time — each ship includes a lastSeenUtc timestamp.
• Stable JSON output — ready for dashboards, alerts, or analysis.

How it works

1. Give a center latitude/longitude and a zoom level (how big an area each tile covers).
2. Optionally set a grid radius to cover more area, and turn on ship details / voyage info.
3. The actor collects every ship in the area, de-duplicates them, and (optionally) looks up each ship's details.
4. Each ship becomes one row — downloadable as JSON, CSV, or Excel.

Zoom levels — what area each covers

MarineTraffic's zoom controls how much sea one map tile covers (smaller number = bigger area). Approximate width of a single tile:

Zoom	Tile width	Good for
4	~45° (~5000 km)	ocean / continent
6	~11° (~1250 km)	large sea region
7	~5.6° (~620 km)	sea / gulf
8	~2.8° (~310 km)	coastline stretch
9	~1.4° (~155 km)	port / bay (default)
10	~0.7° (~78 km)	harbour approach
11–12	~0.35°–0.18° (~39–19 km)	single port / anchorage

Use grid radius to widen coverage: radius 1 = a 3×3 block of tiles around the center, radius 2 = 5×5, and so on.

Use cases

• Port & terminal monitoring — which ships are at/approaching a port right now.
• Fleet / vessel tracking — positions and ETAs for an area of interest.
• Maritime analytics — traffic density, ship types, and flows in a region.
• Alerting — detect arrivals/departures in a watched area.

Input

{
  "lat": "10.1",
  "lon": "107.7",
  "zoom": 9,
  "gridRadius": 1,
  "fetchDetails": true,
  "includeVoyage": true,
  "maxDetails": 200,
  "maxItems": 0,
  "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"] }
}

Field	Type	Description
lat / lon	string	Center of the area (decimal degrees).
zoom	integer	Area size per tile (see table above). Default 9.
gridRadius	integer	Extra tiles around the center. 0 = center only, 1 = 3×3, 2 = 5×5. Default 2.
shipTypes	array	Keep only these categories: Cargo, Tanker, Passenger, Fishing, Tug & Special Craft, High-Speed Craft, Pleasure Craft, Navigation Aid, Unspecified. Empty = all.
fetchDetails	boolean	Add MMSI, IMO, ship type, tonnage, TEU, year built, home port (one lookup per ship). Default false.
includeVoyage	boolean	Also add destination, ETA, ports, draught (with fetchDetails). Default false.
maxDetails	integer	Cap how many ships get detail lookups. 0 = all. Default 200.
maxItems	integer	Overall cap on ships. 0 = all.
proxyConfiguration	object	Residential proxy recommended.

Output

One record per ship. Base fields come from the live map; the rest appear when fetchDetails / includeVoyage are on.

{
  "_input": "lat:10.1|lon:107.7|zoom:9",
  "_scrapedAt": "2026-06-17T17:11:00Z",
  "recordType": "VESSEL",
  "shipId": "9583316",
  "shipName": "COSCO CARNATION",
  "lat": 10.510422, "lon": 107.0091,
  "speed": 4.0, "course": 130.0, "heading": 191.0,
  "elapsedMinutes": 1,
  "lastSeenUtc": "2026-06-17T17:10:18Z",
  "destinationUnlocode": "VNCMP",
  "flag": "HK",
  "shipTypeId": "7", "shipTypeName": "Cargo", "gtShipType": "11",
  "lengthM": 366.0, "widthM": 51.0, "dwt": 163651.0,
  "tile": { "z": 9, "x": 204, "y": 120 },
  "url": "https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:9583316",

  "mmsi": 477145900, "imo": 9945904, "callsign": "VRWW7",
  "vesselType": "Cargo", "vesselTypeSpecific": "Container Ship",
  "grossTonnage": 157741, "deadweight": 163651, "teu": 16180,
  "yearBuilt": 2025, "status": "Active", "homePort": "HONG KONG", "countryCode": "HK",

  "reportedDestination": "VNCMP",
  "etaReported": 1781708400, "etaReportedUtc": "2026-06-17T15:00:00Z",
  "departurePort": { "name": "KAOHSIUNG", "code": "KHH", "timestampLabel": "ATD" },
  "arrivalPort": { "name": "CAI MEP", "code": "CMT", "timestampLabel": "ATA" },
  "draughtReported": 11.1, "progress": 100
}

Field	Type	Description
shipId	string	MarineTraffic ship ID (stable; used for the detail lookups and URL).
shipName	string	Ship name (AIS).
lat / lon	number	Current position.
speed / course / heading	number	Speed (knots), course, heading.
elapsedMinutes	number	Minutes since the last position report.
lastSeenUtc	string	Last position time (UTC), derived from the elapsed minutes.
destinationUnlocode	string	Reported destination (UN/LOCODE).
flag / lengthM / widthM / dwt	mixed	Flag, dimensions, deadweight.
mmsi / imo / callsign	number/string	Identifiers (with fetchDetails).
vesselType / vesselTypeSpecific / grossTonnage / teu / yearBuilt / homePort	mixed	Ship details.
reportedDestination / etaReportedUtc / departurePort / arrivalPort	mixed	Voyage info (with includeVoyage).
_raw	object	The exact raw map fields, untouched.

Notes

• lastSeenUtc precision: the live map reports freshness in whole minutes (elapsedMinutes), so lastSeenUtc is accurate to the minute. A finer position timestamp isn't published on the public map.
• MMSI / IMO are only available with fetchDetails on (the live map omits them). Use maxDetails to balance completeness vs run time.
• Higher zoom = smaller area but more individual (un-clustered) ships; widen coverage with gridRadius.