Danish Straits Live
Every vessel threading the Danish Straits — the Great Belt, Øresund and Little Belt — on one live map. The Baltic's gateway to the North Sea, and the chokepoint every Baltic-bound tanker must pass.
Live vessel positions
Open full-screen ↗What are the Danish Straits?
The Danish Straits are the three straits that link the Baltic Sea to the Kattegat and onward to the North Sea: the Great Belt (Storebælt), the Øresund (The Sound) between Copenhagen and Malmö, and the Little Belt (Lillebælt). Together they form the principal maritime gateway between the Baltic and the world's oceans — the Kiel Canal is the only alternative, and only for smaller ships. The live map above shows every vessel with an active AIS signal, updated each minute.
Why the Danish Straits matter
The Danish Straits are the gateway between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. Almost everything that enters or leaves the Baltic by sea passes through one of them, which makes the straits a natural chokepoint for the region's trade. A large share of Baltic seaborne trade transits here, including crude oil and refined products exported from Russian Baltic ports such as Primorsk, Ust-Luga and St Petersburg — a flow that has made the straits a focus of sanctions and "shadow fleet" scrutiny.
This page exists because that flow deserves a free, public, real-time view — not buried behind a maritime-intelligence subscription. Watch the map. The ships are still moving.
What you're seeing on the map
- Every vessel inside the Danish Straits bounding box — across the Great Belt, the Øresund and the Little Belt — with an active AIS signal.
- Vessel type — tanker, bulk, container, cargo, sailing — colour-coded.
- Direction and speed — heading arrows and speed colours show ships bound into the Baltic versus out toward the Kattegat and North Sea.
- Live refresh every 60 seconds on the public feed.
For voyage history, sanction status, ownership chain, and cargo inference, sign in to the Strait Up Maritime app.
Geography
The Danish Straits are three separate channels rather than a single waterway. The Great Belt (Storebælt) is the deep-water route used by large vessels, spanned by the Great Belt Fixed Link bridge-and-tunnel crossing. The Øresund (The Sound) runs between Copenhagen and Malmö beneath the Øresund Bridge, but it is shallower — its Drogden channel is only about 8 metres deep — so laden large tankers use the Great Belt instead. The Little Belt (Lillebælt) is the narrow western channel between the island of Funen and the Jutland mainland. Unlike the Suez or Panama canals the straits are natural waterways, not artificial cuts.
Passage rules
Passage through the Danish Straits is governed by the 1857 Copenhagen Convention, which abolished the historic Sound Dues and guarantees free passage, alongside the UNCLOS transit-passage regime. As a result Denmark cannot levy transit tolls on ships passing through the straits.
About the data
Vessel positions come from terrestrial and satellite AIS reception, aggregated across multiple providers and de-duplicated. The public live feed is delayed approximately 60 to 180 seconds from broadcast and covers the public Danish Straits bounding box only. Commercial users with a paid plan get unredacted access including vessel detail, voyage history, draught classification, sanctions context, and ownership chain.
AIS data is broadcast openly by vessels under the SOLAS V/19 carriage requirement. We aggregate, refresh, and visualise it — we don't operate the broadcasting infrastructure.
Frequently asked questions
What are the Danish Straits?
The Danish Straits are the three straits that link the Baltic Sea to the Kattegat and onward to the North Sea: the Great Belt (Storebælt), the Øresund (The Sound) between Copenhagen and Malmö, and the Little Belt (Lillebælt). Together they form the principal maritime gateway between the Baltic and the world's oceans.
Which of the Danish Straits do large ships use?
The Great Belt is the deep-water route used by large vessels. The Øresund is shallower — its Drogden channel is only about 8 metres deep — so laden large tankers typically use the Great Belt instead.
Can Denmark charge tolls for passing through the Danish Straits?
No. Passage is governed by the 1857 Copenhagen Convention, which abolished the Sound Dues and guarantees free passage, alongside the UNCLOS transit-passage regime. Denmark cannot levy transit tolls on ships passing through the straits.
How current is the data on this page?
The live map refreshes every 60 seconds from aggregated AIS reception. End-to-end latency from a vessel's actual broadcast to its dot moving on the map is typically 60 to 180 seconds. The hero counter above updates each time you reload the page.
Is this free to use?
Yes. The live map is free and requires no account. If you need vessel detail, voyage history, sanctions context, ownership chain, or draught/cargo inference, those sit behind a paid plan at Strait Up Maritime.
Other chokepoints we cover
The Danish Straits are one of several maritime chokepoints under continuous observation across Strait Up Maritime. Each has its own live page; the same dataset powers all of them.