Less known than services dedicated to aircraft, real-time maritime traffic monitoring applications are nevertheless very effective and well developed. They make it possible to identify a ship, but also to highlight the energy-intensive journeys of certain billionaires in their yachts.
Aircraft in-flight tracking services have been around for a long time, based on public data used by air traffic control services. These apps and websites, taken over by aeronautical enthusiasts or parents worried about whether their children have arrived at their destination, have recently emerged in a very different way: environmental activists and citizens are using them to point the finger at the unreasonable use of private jets, especially by billionaires.
Elon Musk paid the price in early 2022, and recently the CEO of Total was caught flying in his jet to go to a conference in which he asked French men and women of make efforts. In July 2022, it was Kylie Jenner who was mocked for her 17-minute ride to California on a private jet, prompting a series of articles about the ire of billionaires no longer wishing to be hounded in the air.
The subject highlights several interesting reflections, ranging from the collective interest to the rationality of the use of personal planes, when public lines exist, through the right to privacy of the wealthiest classes. What is rarely mentioned, however, is the possibility of using similar tools for maritime traffic. And to follow yachts as one would follow jets.
MarineTraffic, maritime traffic in real time
FlightTracker’s equivalent for boats is called MarineTraffic. The site shows the boats which are sailing at sea and which have transmitted their position. A legend makes it possible to sort the types of vessels, from the pleasure boat to the cruise ship through freight or fishing boats.
In the free version, the site does not allow you to associate a boat with its owner, but if you know the name of a boat belonging to a person, you can absolutely type it in the search bar and the site will find it for you. Looking for the yacht of a multimillionaire, founder of an American protein company, we know that it is in the port of Fort Lauderdale and that its position was updated 7 minutes ago. For around sixty euros per month, MarineTraffic allows anyone who wishes to unlock information on the boats, such as the name of the owner or the builder.
SuperYachtFan, the paid yacht database
Lazy to research the names of yachts owned by your favorite billionaires? If these few seconds of googling put you off, SuperYachtFan sells for a hundred euros a complete database, listing all these ships, with a lot of information – engines, designer, owner, length, builder, price…
It will then suffice to locate them in a tool like MarineTraffic to locate them and follow their routes.
As a free alternative, Forbes publishes a rather complete Yacht Tracker.
Twitter accounts that follow yachts
Twitter accounts have so far specialized in tracking private jets. The symbolic impact is stronger, compared to the yacht which seems from another time. But at least two Twitter accounts have specialized in following yachts, with particular attention to those owned by oligarchs.
- Alex Finley multiplies field surveys and research on public databases to track down yachts. His favorite terrain: the oligarchs, and in particular those whose boats must be seized.
- With less success than his ElonJet Twitter, prankster Jack Sweeney created an account named RussiaYachts. It can be completed by another account.