Vessels API
Search vessels and retrieve identity details, combining GFW AIS identity data with over 40 public regional and national registries.
Introduction Vessels API
Vessels API allows you to search for vessels and get vessel identity details. This API combines Global Fishing Watch (GFW) core AIS identity data with GFW registry database to enable an improved understanding of vessel identity over time. The GFW registry database includes vessel identity information from over 40 public regional and national registries and a static version was released on our Data Download Portal here which was used in the recently published paper Tracking elusive and shifting identities of the global fishing fleet by Park et al. (2023).
Search results are paginated. See Pagination for how limit, offset, and nextOffset work.
You can:
- Search for AIS and across over 40 public international, regional and national vessel registries. Check list of sources in the reference data section
- Get identity details based on AIS self reported data or public registries. Check more detail about data caveats here.
Learning how APIs are used in Global Fishing Watch Vessel Viewer
If you want to learn which APIs are used in
Vessel Viewer
, you can review
this document showing the exact API requests done behind each page
.