Ships in port · United States · USSFO
Ships in the port of San Francisco: live map
Every vessel around San Francisco that is broadcasting AIS, on one map: cargo ships, tankers, ferries and fishing boats coloured by type, with the sea state and the wind at the port.
The live AIS feed LayEarth receives today covers the Baltic Sea and Nordic waters, so the map stays empty here: no feed yet, not no ships.
Sea and wind at San Francisco now
- Waves
- 1.1 m
- slight · 13 s from the west
- Wind
- 6 km/h
- 3 kn · Beaufort 2 from the north-east
- Gusts
- 7 km/h
- 4 kn
Waves read 20 km west of the port, at the nearest open-water cell of the wave model.
Forecast from the NOAA GFS run of 2026-10-16 06:00 UTC. Updating live…
About San Francisco
The port of San Francisco sits in a sheltered bay (United States, UN/LOCODE USSFO); cruise ships and ferries make up most of its calls.
It is one of 28 ports listed here for North America.
Reading the map
On the map the colour is the type: blue for cruise ships and ferries (passenger); grey for tugs, pilot boats, dredgers and anything without a declared type. An arrow is a ship under way, pointing along its course; a dot is a ship at anchor or moored. Tap a ship for its name, MMSI, speed, course and declared destination, with the waves and wind where it is.
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Questions
- How can I see which ships are in the port of San Francisco right now?
- Use the live map at the top of this page, or the ships layer in the LayEarth app: every vessel transmitting AIS in the port area shows with its type colour, course and speed, and a tap gives its name and destination. Live AIS for this area is not in LayEarth's feed yet, so today the map stays empty here.
- What kind of port is San Francisco?
- The port of San Francisco sits in a sheltered bay (United States, UN/LOCODE USSFO); cruise ships and ferries make up most of its calls.
- What are the waves and wind at San Francisco today?
- The block above reads the latest NOAA GFS forecast of the 10 m wind and gusts at the port and the GFS-Wave significant wave height, period and direction at the nearest open water, for the hour closest to now.
- Why is a ship missing from the map?
- Only vessels that broadcast AIS appear: ships over 300 tonnes on international voyages and all passenger ships must, many small boats do not. A position older than 30 minutes is dropped, and a coastal receiver hears ships up to roughly 40 nautical miles away, so a gap can be a quiet transponder or a receiver out of range.
Ships in nearby ports
Oakland · Los Angeles · Long Beach · Tacoma · Seattle · Vancouver
Where the data comes from
Ship positions are AIS messages relayed by the LayEarth server, which keeps only the last position of each ship and drops it after 30 minutes. The live feed today is Fintraffic Digitraffic (CC BY 4.0), the Baltic Sea and Nordic waters. Wind is the NOAA GFS 10 m forecast and waves the NOAA GFS-Wave (WaveWatch III) model, run of 2026-10-16 06:00 UTC, both public domain. The live map shows the same data as the app.