English Channel Live
Every vessel in the world's busiest shipping lane, on one live map. Container ships bound for Rotterdam and Antwerp, cross-Channel ferries, and tankers threading the Dover Strait between England and France.
Live vessel positions
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Live transit data at the English Channel — counts, flags, vessel types, and sanctioned-vessel detections versus the IMF PortWatch baseline. Filter by vessel type and period.
How many ships pass through the English Channel each day?
Around 500 to 600 vessels transit the Dover Strait — the narrowest part of the English Channel — every day, making it the busiest shipping lane on Earth. Container ships, tankers, bulk carriers, and dozens of cross-Channel ferries share the water. The live map above shows every one with an active AIS signal, refreshed each minute.
Why the English Channel matters
The English Channel connects the North Sea and the great ports of Northern Europe — Rotterdam, Antwerp, Hamburg, Felixstowe — to the Atlantic and the wider world. Traffic funnels through the Dover Strait, barely 33 km wide between Dover in England and Calais in France, under one of the world's most strictly enforced Traffic Separation Schemes. It is among the most congested and most regulated stretches of water anywhere, carrying a large share of European seaborne trade.
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 English Channel / Dover Strait bounding box with an active AIS signal.
- Vessel type — container, tanker, bulk, cargo, ferry, sailing — colour-coded.
- Direction and speed — heading arrows and speed colours show the two-way traffic lanes.
- 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 English Channel separates southern England from northern France, linking the North Sea to the Atlantic. At the Dover Strait it narrows to about 33 km (18 nautical miles) between Dover and Calais. A Traffic Separation Scheme keeps north-east and south-west traffic in dedicated lanes, with cross-Channel ferries cutting across under strict coordination — one of the busiest maritime intersections in the world.
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 Channel 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
How many ships pass through the English Channel each day?
Around 500 to 600 commercial vessels transit the Dover Strait daily — the busiest shipping lane in the world — alongside dozens of cross-Channel ferries.
How wide is the English Channel at its narrowest?
At the Dover Strait — between Dover, England and Calais, France — the Channel narrows to about 33 km (18 nautical miles). Traffic there follows a strictly enforced Traffic Separation Scheme with dedicated north-east and south-west lanes.
What types of ships transit the English Channel?
Container ships bound for Rotterdam, Antwerp, Hamburg and Felixstowe dominate, alongside tankers, bulk carriers, general cargo, RoRo, and a constant stream of cross-Channel passenger and vehicle ferries between England and France.
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 English Channel is 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.