Vessel Density Maps from AIS Data in the Northwest Atlantic, 2013-2022

A 10-year time series (2013-2022) of vessel density maps derived from Automatic Identification System (AIS) data for the Northwest Atlantic, produced by Fisheries and Oceans Canada. The data provides a pre-COVID-19 baseline (2019) and subsequent yearly and monthly aggregated views of shipping activity. It is intended for spatial analysis and decision support in marine spatial planning.

Use Cases

• Modeling shipping traffic corridors for marine spatial planning based on aggregated vessel density.
• Analyzing temporal trends in maritime activity from the 10-year time series of AIS data.
• Assessing baseline pre-pandemic (2019) shipping densities for comparative studies.
• Supporting maritime safety and security assessments using geospatial vessel traffic patterns.

Strengths

• Covers a 10-year time range (2013-2022), providing longitudinal analysis potential.
• Includes a specific pre-COVID-19 baseline year (2019) for comparison.
• Data is provided in multiple standard geospatial formats (FGDB/GDB, ESRI REST, GEOTIF).
• Produced by a national authority (Fisheries and Oceans Canada).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to the Northwest Atlantic region.

Provenance

Source

Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Collection Method

Geographic information system (GIS) analysis of satellite and terrestrial-based Automatic Identification System (AIS) data.

Time Range

2013 to 2022

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03 24 08:06:58.298883; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Northwest Atlantic