Friday 21 February 2014

AIS shows just how many ships are at sea in the Western Approaches

Some extraordinary reception for AIS allowed us to get just a glimpse of just how busy the Western Approaches can be even at this time of year...


in this shot the big Irish pelagic trawler, Paula can be seen working some 170 miles west of :Land's End...


while up in the North Sea things are looking pretty busy, most of the purple targets are fishing vessels...


down south, the Newlyn beam trawler has been towing almost north and south off the bank..


an occasional visitor to Newlyn, Ora Labora took an interesting detour, probably when she hauled and lay to the wind before towing again...


there's a small fleet of beam trawlers form Newly working way down south this week away from the heavy swell in the Channel...


Cefas Endeavour is on a 2014 survey track off the French coast, though their blog is not being updated at present...


the Sea Spray has managed to get a trip in at last now that the weather has some semblance of normality...


its a straight steam home for the beam trawler.