NordicWarden
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About NordicWarden

An open-source intelligence (OSINT) picture of shipping in Nordic and nearby waters.

What it does

NordicWarden listens to public AIS feeds – the radio messages ships send with their identity, position, course and speed – and keeps a live picture of the ships in Nordic waters. Every ship is cross-checked against open data, and the result is shown on the map with the reasons and the sources behind it.

How the risk score works

A ship's risk score (0–100) adds up signals, each with its own weight:

  • Lists: sanctions and watch lists (EU, UK, US, UN, Ukraine GUR), port-state detentions, and sanctioned owners or managers.
  • Shadow-fleet patterns: old tankers, frequent reflagging and renaming, flags of convenience, a missing IMO number, trips to or from Russian ports.
  • Behaviour: anchoring on or loitering over subsea cables and pipelines, ship-to-ship meetings, AIS going silent.

On the map, ships are coloured by their score: 1–39 40–69 70+, naval ships naval and government vessels government.

Limits – read this before you use it

Indicators, not accusations. A flagged ship is a lead to check, not proof of wrongdoing.

  • AIS only shows what ships choose to broadcast. They can switch it off or send false data; warships don't have to transmit at all.
  • The open Norwegian data leaves out fishing vessels under 15 m and leisure craft under 45 m.
  • Databases can be wrong or out of date, and an identity number (MMSI) can be reused by another ship.
  • Receivers on shore hear ships near the coast well and ships far out at sea rarely.

Sources

  • AIS: the Norwegian Coastal Administration (Kystverket, NLOD) and BarentsWatch; Fintraffic Digitraffic (Finland, CC BY 4.0); aisstream.io.
  • Sanctions, listings and ownership: OpenSanctions (CC BY-NC 4.0), including EU, UK, US and UN lists, Ukraine GUR and port-state control.
  • Events and vessel identity: Global Fishing Watch.
  • Cables and pipelines: TeleGeography (CC BY-NC-SA), OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), EMODnet.
  • Port calls: Fintraffic Digitraffic.
  • Base maps: Esri, GEBCO, NOAA, Garmin, HERE; Kartverket.

Data under non-commercial licences is shown here for non-commercial, public-interest use, with attribution.

Membership

Anyone can look at the live map and see which ships are flagged and why. Members get the full picture.

Membership is open to everyone for now. You need a valid e-mail address – the answer to your application and any password reset are sent there, and it is used for nothing else – and every application is read by a person before the account is opened, usually within a day or two. We may limit membership later. Apply for membership.

WhatWithout an accountMembers
Live map of shipsEvery ship the AIS feeds receive in Nordic and nearby waters, updated every few seconds, with naval and government vessels marked. ✓ ✓
Risk score with reasons and sourcesWhy a ship is flagged: sanctions and watch lists (EU, UK, US, UN, Ukraine GUR), shadow-fleet patterns, reflagging, port-state detentions – each with the database match and its source. ✓ ✓
Events at seaShips anchoring on or loitering over subsea cables and pipelines, ship-to-ship meetings, AIS switched off, port calls to and from Russia. ✓ ✓
Owners, managers and companiesThe registered owner, the ship and commercial managers, the P&I club, and which of them are sanctioned (OpenSanctions, Global Fishing Watch registries). – ✓
Global Fishing WatchA ship's last 90 days: port visits, loitering, meetings at sea, AIS gaps likely made on purpose; 12 months of AIS coverage; registries and illegal-fishing lists. – ✓
Satellite imagesFor every event: the Sentinel-1 radar images (through clouds and darkness) and Sentinel-2 optical images of that place and day, to see what was there. – ✓
Track historyWhere a ship has been, from the site's own recording. 7 days back 30 days back