Ships in port · Canada · CAVAN
Ships in the port of Vancouver: live map
Every vessel around Vancouver 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 Vancouver now
- Wind
- 7 km/h
- 4 kn · Beaufort 2 from the north-east
- Gusts
- 6 km/h
- 3 kn
The wave model has no open-sea cell within 40 km of the port (rivers, sounds and some enclosed seas are outside its grid), so there is no wave height here.
Forecast from the NOAA GFS run of 2026-10-16 06:00 UTC. Updating live…
About Vancouver
Vancouver (Canada) is a port on a fjord, coded CAVAN in UN/LOCODE. The ships you will see most here are container ships, bulk carriers and cruise ships. It is the country's main port.
It is one of 28 ports listed here for North America.
Reading the map
On the map the colour is the type: green for container ships and bulk carriers (cargo) and blue for cruise ships (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 Vancouver 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 Vancouver?
- Vancouver (Canada) is a port on a fjord, coded CAVAN in UN/LOCODE. The ships you will see most here are container ships, bulk carriers and cruise ships. It is the country's main port.
- What are the waves and wind at Vancouver 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, 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
Seattle · Tacoma · Prince Rupert · San Francisco · Oakland · Long Beach
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.