Oil spill and ship collision prevention

The Automatic Information System (AIS) offers a cost-effective, open-source way of tracking marine traffic through the Salish Sea in near real-time. Since all large vessels are required to transmit their identifying information (name, vessel type, speed, course, and more) a network of shore-based receivers could enable risks to killer whales and other endangered species of the Pacific Northwest to be assessed and mitigated with a very fast response time. This wiki is a place to centralize information required for building and funding such a network.

Live data displays for the Salish Sea

• MarineTraffic.com (Upon zoom gives Flag, Ship Type, Status, Length x Breadth, Draught, Destination, ETA, IMO, receive date/time, PLUS great links to track and ship details, including some photos)
• Shine Micro Live AIS Google map (may require free registration; upon zoom gives MMSI#, Name, Type, Destination, receive date/time, but often out-dated)
• Hal's sailwx.org page presenting data from World Meteorological Organization's VOS and the YOTREPS network

AIS hardware/software

• Milltech Marine AIS installations and supplies; based on Bainbridge Island, WA
• ShipPlotter software
• Shine Micro hard/software

General AIS information/links

• AIS at Wikipedia
• Milltech Marine link list

Other inspiring sites and links

• Bay Area shipping (Flash-based; live and animation of recent movements)
• Live English Channel shipping (ShipPlotter + Google Earth/plugin)
• Digital Seas (live and archived ship data, including community-provided photos
• SARS Marinetrac software (as of 2008, used by WA Dept. of Ecology to track vessels for oil spill response, etc)
• USCG Vessel Tracking System in Seattle is upgrading in 2009, but has used radar supplemented by verbal VHF data (provided data feed via home-grown software to Dept of Ecology, but may not after 2008)