The Discovery Channel show “Deadliest Catch” is recorded over several months of crab fishing during the winter and broadcast during the spring every year. By the time the show premieres in April, most of the boats are actually finished crab fishing for the season. So, how can you keep up with your favorite Deadliest Catch boats while they’re actually fishing? By using MarineTraffic.com. (MT)
With marinetraffic.com you can track a vessels while they are in the port of Dutch Harbor. The site currently does not track them once they leave the area. However, there is much you can do with the site. You can sign up for a free account that will allow you to build your own database of vessels. You can then set up alerts around your favorite boats to be alerted through text and email messages as they come in and out of range.
Marinetraffic.com allows you to track vessel positions based on AIS data (automatic identification system), this system along with marine radar are the primary methods used to avoid collisions for water transportation. AIS transceiver sends data every 2 to 10 seconds depending on a vessel’s speed while underway, and every 3 minutes while a vessel is at anchor, as long as the vessel has the transceiver turned on.
On the home page of marinetraffic.com you will find a live map and navigation area. This map of the world shows all reporting vessels; each green square shows a number which represents how many vessels are in that area. You can double click a square to zoom into the area or use the navigation panel on the left. If you type “Dutch Harbor” into the “Go to Port…” field you’ll quickly see “Dutch Harbor” pop up. The third box is for a certain vessel, type in the name of the vessel you are searching for and the system will tell you whether the boat is out of range or it will take you to the map directly related to the vessels location.
On top you will see four tabs – Live map, Vessels, Port and Gallery. Live map is the main page with the world map; Vessels & Ports tabs are a way to search for any registered vessel and most ports. The Gallery tab is a collection of photos submitted by members. Take a look at some of these beautiful boats! The tall ships are amazing.
Under the Live map tab there is four subfolders – world map, cover your area, FAQ file and Services. World map takes you back to the full coverage map, Cover your area is for those who want an AIS receiver and FAQ is of course, “frequently asked questions” answered. The final tab is useful as it contains apps for smart phones (for a fee), the ability to embed a map, Google earth, lighthouse directory, receiving stations and a discussion area.
Maybe the best feature of marinetraffic.com is the “My Fleet” section at the top. This is where you can register with MT and set up your fleet. You sign up your favorite boats by entering their Maritime Mobile Service Identity (MMSI) number, a unique ID number for each vessel or click the tiny (?) sign on the bottom right to search out your vessel’s MMSI number. At the bottom of this post you can find these numbers for each Deadliest Catch vessel. Once you have added all your boats go back to the live map. Click the box called “my Fleet” and all the other boats disappear except for the vessels in your fleet file.
Hover your mouse over the boat and an Information box will pop up. Information includes ship type, status, speed/course, and click to see the tracking of the vessel. On the right side there is a photo, along with links to vessels details and more photos. Click on all information and you will get all the links available including a great new feature of “add this to my fleet”. The vessels detail page is great if you want more information about your boat.
Another sub-folder within “My Fleet” is Notifications & Alerts. Here you add your favorite vessels to be alerted by emails and/or SMS text alerts when they come in and out of range of the system. “My points” allow your to list points of interest for others to see on the map and SMS alerts is where you sign up for text alerts to be sent directly to your smart phone. The cost is minimal, around $20 for 100 credits – each text being 1 credit.
With the map you have two ways to look at your ports – as a general map or through satellite from Google earth. Just a note that Google earth is a general photo, although they say it’s a certain vessel anchored in port, the photo is an older photo and might not be that vessel.
There are other sites that allow you to see the fleet as it is arriving and departing Dutch Harbor, but only in frame by frame still shots. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has several weather webcams here. Dutch Harbor has three cameras; Dutch Ballyhoo, Dutch haystack and Dutch NDB. Deadliest Catch fans can watch the boats move around the harbor on marinetraffic.com then turn to the cameras in order to actually “see” the boats traveling.
Marinetraffic.com can act strange at times and often goes down. It can be kind of “wonky” so you have to be patient. However, it can also be fun to track your favorite boats. If you are interested in more info about Deadliest Catch, visit www.DeadliestCatchFan.com. Special thanks to Mary Beth for writing this article. I did edit the content so if there are any mistakes, they are probably mine. Mary Beth is one of the moderators on DeadliestCatchfan.com and one of the most knowledgeable folks around in all things Deadliest Catch.
MMSI numbers for DC boats:
Cornelia Marie 367142080
Cape Caution 8853374
Northwestern 367363350
Time Bandit 338564000
Seabrooke 367018620
Wizard 367050980
Kodiak 303546000
Ramblin Rose 366845000
Thanks Morgan – I don’t go over to Marine Traffic all that much – usually when someone posts that a boat is in view. So when I do, it’s hard to get my bearings. Your great tutorial will help.
I enjoy watching the show the Nortwestern & Corneliamarie are my favorite.
Can’t wait till the new season starts
Thanks Morgan and Mary Beth!!
Hoping you guys are havin a stavin trip and stayin safe!!! i send my love <3
I have been going out of my mind waiting for the new season to start.
Can someone tell me when the new season is going to start?
Love the Northwestern Sig and Edgar! Love the Time Bandit! They are hilarious red necks of the sea! I can’t watch the Corneila Marie since Phil passed it makes me too sad. He was a good guy.
For some reason on MarineTrack.com the Northwestern comes up as “Norwestern”, missing the “th”. I don’t know if this is intentional, but you must search for “Norwestern” not “Northwestern” to find the boat. Very cool site.
I’ve watched this AIS map for over a year now, and it is horribly uninformative. The Northwestern is the only one that ever (even occasionally) shows up on the map area, although I get email reports every couple of weeks when some of the boats (The Wizard and the Seabrooke for example, but very rarely TB or CM) come in and out of port. The TB has not shown a transponder signal on there for over a year, whether in port or at sea.
Sorry, but this is not a reliable means of tracking anything. Really disappointing.
maybe they need a green horn on the dock with foil rapt around’em to adjust the sonar lol
love the show did sig ever go on danceing with the stars
Actually Andie you can yell at the boats for them not showing up. It is up to the boats captain (or assigned person) to turn on the reporting AIS tracking unit on the ship, if its not turned on nothing will be reported.
This is also the reason on the
misspelling of the Northwestern, its up to whom ever turns on the tracking device to update the ships name. If they type it in wrong, it stays that way until it is corrected.
MarineTraffic isn’t perfect, but I give kudos to the ones running it for now.I enjoy watching the boats come and go – and yes its difficult to catch the DC boats when they are in to offload and then back out again. None the less – the beginning of the new season in September brings hope they all come back safely with full pots!
“ments-are-upward-118/ Thanks for that awesome posting. It saved MUCH time
Is it true someone found the Wizard near the UK a while back on marine tracker?
Love the show!!!
My top 3 favorite boats are the 1) Time Bandit- with the brothers and all the pratical jokes 2) the Northwestern- for sig and the crew 3) the Cornilla Marie- for Phil and the boys who lost a dad and then took on the family bisness for a while (Jake and Josh don’t give up just quite yet)
Deadliest Catch is absolutely my favorite show on TV! Any chance I could go out for just one leg of the jorney? JUst started watching two years ago and haven’t seen any ladies on board. Would love to sign on as a ‘greenhorn’. I would give any money I made to charity-but hey, I’ll go for free just for the experience. Don’t have any sea experience, but have done ‘guy’ work all my life so I think I could handle a short run. Top picks Sig Hanson’s ship, or the Hilstrom bros. Time Bandit. Any chance?
I like the helpful info you provide for your articles. I’ll bookmark your weblog and test again here frequently. I am reasonably sure I’ll be informed many new stuff right right here! Best of luck for the next!
Thanks for the info! This is really neat. I’ve already been playing around with it, so cool.
Everyone please stay safe. Prayers for you all.
Thanks for posting this information and very easy to follow explanation of how to use it. I look forward to following the Deadliest Catch boats!
I signed up for this last week, but am still figuring it out. Maybe by the time the season is over??? lol
CAPE CAUTION is using MMSI # 368631000,
not 8853374 as you posted.
That’s funny. Make sure you let us know what happens. Nicer photos in the gallery….one in particular of Phil and his son. Hope everyone is doing well. I miss CM – look forward to following the ships via link here.
I have been using that site for a long time it is very good.The bad thing is the range does not go out to sea very far, most of the time. I also post pictures i take of ships in my area on marine traffic. Cant wait for new season of Deadliest Catch.
My husband and I have watched all the DC shows since airing. We sometimes talk about where they are (The Deadliest Catch boats). This is a neat feature we would both love to have. I not sure what the black for “website” is though. I am putting Facebook for mine. I hope that is right.
Thanks,
Connie
Thanks for this … I just set up my “fleet” list … cool, can’t wait to start watching … any other boat numbers of interest to add?
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