marine traffic
Definition
The movement and flow of ships, boats, and other vessels through oceans, seas, and navigable waterways.
A real-time tracking service (often referring to MarineTraffic.com) that monitors global vessel positions using AIS (Automatic Identification System) data, popular among sailors, shipping enthusiasts, and armchair admirals.
Examples
The marine traffic around the Suez Canal backed up like a bad day on the interstate, leaving container ships idling like grumpy commuters.
With the MarineTraffic app, I tracked my neighbor's suspiciously fast yacht and confirmed it was just him trying to beat rush hour waves.
Captain Ahab would have killed for modern marine traffic data—instead of chasing Moby Dick blindly, he'd have pinged his exact coordinates.
Pirates of old dreamed of hacking marine traffic feeds; now even weekend boaters can play naval spy from their hammocks.