North Atlantic EMPTY of Cargo Ships in-transit?

a reply to: caterpillage

Much of the Atlantic is empty, could be the time of year?

Hard to say how empty it is. The tracking site uses shore based AIS receivers, which don't have a very great range. That's why all the vessels appear near land, no tracking for mid-ocean vessels.

www.marinetraffic.com...

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: caterpillage

Much of the Atlantic is empty, could be the time of year?

Hard to say how empty it is. The tracking site uses shore based AIS receivers, which don't have a very great range. That's why all the vessels appear near land, no tracking for mid-ocean vessels.

www.marinetraffic.com...

That could be it then, in the Great Lakes ais is allways in reach. Though the ship can turn their transmitter off. Which is frustrating when your trying to plan for their arrival.

a reply to: caterpillage
Wow. Since the main purpose is anti-collision, that seems like a bad idea.

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: caterpillage
Wow. Since the main purpose is anti-collision, that seems like a bad idea.

Yeah. I'll ask in the spring when I see them again why they shut it off. They must figure the radar is good enough I guess, maybe they don't want corporate tacking them lol.

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: caterpillage

Much of the Atlantic is empty, could be the time of year?

Hard to say how empty it is. The tracking site uses shore based AIS receivers, which don't have a very great range. That's why all the vessels appear near land, no tracking for mid-ocean vessels.

www.marinetraffic.com...

VHF-FM to be exact. Line of sight. With high-site antenna on land they can reach more than 40 miles in some cases.

a reply to: onehuman

Quite a few people have got Faal'd. It happens.

Cool map, though. Thanks for that!!

You would be better off checking the Baltic Dry Index or the "Dry Bulk Index". It's a measure of how busy or idle the international shipping companies are:

www.investopedia.com...

patriotrising.com...

But that's down to China having problems, not the USA or Europe.

Not sure how the OP misunderstanding a map filter equates to a hoax, but I'm glad I ignored the label as I found this interesting...

Source
Something Very Strange Is Taking Place Off The Coast Of Galveston, TX
Having exposed the world yesterday to the 2-mile long line of tankers-full'o'crude heading from Iraq to the US, several weeks after reporting that China has run out of oil storage space we can now confirm that the global crude "in transit" glut is becoming gargantuan and is starting to have adverse consequences on the price of oil.

While the crude oil tanker backlog in Houston reaches an almost unprecedented 39 (with combined capacity of 28.4 million barrels), as The FT reports that from China to the Gulf of Mexico, the growing flotilla of stationary supertankers is evidence that the oil price crash may still have further to run, as more than 100m barrels of crude oil and heavy fuels are being held on ships at sea (as the year-long supply glut fills up available storage on land). The storage problems are so severe in fact, that traders asking ships to go slow, and that is where we see something very strange occurring off the coast near Galveston, TX.

FT reports that "the amount of oil at sea is at least double the levels of earlier this year and is equivalent to more than a day of global oil supply. The numbers of vessels has been compiled by the Financial Times from satellite tracking data and industry sources."

The storage glut is unprecedented:

Here's another good reason threads shouldn't be labeled as hoaxes...
Baltic Dry Index below 400, is it China, the US or both?
I wouldn't have paid either of those last two links much attention if I hadn't caught this thread.
Apparently railroads aren't doing so hot either, it's a misunderstanding about a map filter, not a 'hoax' and it lead me to some other interesting information.

originally posted by: twitchy
Not sure how the OP misunderstanding a map filter equates to a hoax, but I'm glad I ignored the label as I found this interesting...

Source
Something Very Strange Is Taking Place Off The Coast Of Galveston, TX
Having exposed the world yesterday to the 2-mile long line of tankers-full'o'crude heading from Iraq to the US, several weeks after reporting that China has run out of oil storage space we can now confirm that the global crude "in transit" glut is becoming gargantuan and is starting to have adverse consequences on the price of oil.

Do you have any other sources who can corroborate this? I'm not sure if I want to blindly believe a source who is using what appears to be a pseudonym (using the name of an imaginary character from literature and film).

I mean, sure -- this might be accurate information, but it isn't necessarily accurate information, either.

a reply to: Soylent Green Is People

Yep...

Oil Tanker Backlog in U.S. Gulf Seen as New Symbol of Glut
HOUSTON, Nov 10 (Reuters) – A traffic jam of oil tankers has emerged along the U.S. Texas coast this month, a snarl that some traders see as the latest sign of an unyielding global supply glut.

Oil Glut At 3 Billion Barrel Record
Overabundance of Texas Tea

A November 13 snapshot of oil tankers off Galveston illustrates the problem. Every diamond is an anchored oil tanker, waiting its turn to unload. The ship icons are those lucky tankers who have unloaded, or arriving tankers taking their place at the end of the line.

Busy days at Galveston as tankers crowd the anchorages
But the explanation for the crowded anchorages encompasses far more. George Los, senior market analyst in the projects group at tanker broker CR Weber & Co. told Seatrade Global: “The number of units anchored off of Galveston is largely indicative of congestion and ullage issues.”

Oil Glut Grows: 100 Million Barrels at Sea
It’s no different here. There’s a record amount of crude oil sitting in ships off the Gulf Coast.

There's plenty more but hopefully that's sufficient.

Also found this while digging around for additional sources so I appreciate your response or I might have missed it...

Mystery of the missing tanker: Ship carrying $100million in Kurdish oil vanishes from radar screens 60 miles off the coast of Texas

originally posted by: Soylent Green Is People

I'm not sure if I want to blindly believe a source who is using what appears to be a pseudonym...

It's never good to blindly believe anything, but to raise doubts just because of a user name is probably equally unwise, and is akin to stereotyping.

Maybe whomever moved this thread to the 'Hoax' forum missed the question mark in the title?

If it makes you feel better, the original source for the claim of no shipping is Sorcha Faal.

Does make me feel better....lol.