Field

Data category

Data sub-categories (kinds of data)

Data source reference in the chapter

Name of data source

Data source description

Data format available

Direct access to data

Vessels

Static and rarely changing characteristics

Static and historical data related to ship characteristics, shipping companies, ship builders and repairers:

[8]

Lloyd's Register of Ships online, Lloyd's Register Foundation

Lloyd's Register (formerly Registry of Shipping, operating since 1764) offers detailed static and historical data related to ships and shipping companies around the globe.

TXT, HTML, PDF

LINK

[9]

Equasis

The Equasis Portal provides detailed information about ship characteristics: name; class/type; unique International Maritime Organisation (IMO) number and Maritime Mobile Service Identity (MMSI) number; flag; ownership; call sign; port of registry; tonnage; dimensions; survey dates; cargo; capacity; status; construction; engine details; machinery; photographs; and much more, for about 100,000 ships of 100 gross tonnage and more.

TXT, HTML

LINK

[10]

Vessels Database, MarineTraffic

The MarineTraffic Vessels Database offers detailed historical and real-time vessel positional data; static vessel data; shipping companies and ship builders data, etc.

TXT, HTML

LINK

[13]

Vessels Database, VesselFinder

The VesselFinder Vessel Database offers detailed information about ships.

TXT, HTML

LINK

[14]

Vessels, VesselTracker

The VesselTracker Vessels database offers historical and real-time vessel positional data; static vessel data; shipping companies and ship builders data, etc.

TXT, HTML

LINK

[15]

Vessels, FleetMon

The FleetMon Vessels database provides historical and real-time vessel positional data; static vessel data; shipping companies and ship builders data, etc.

TXT, HTML

LINK

[16]

Vessels, BalticShipping

The BalticShipping Vessels database offers static vessel and shipping companies data.

TXT, HTML

LINK

[19]

Maritime Vessels Directory, Maritime Activity Reports (MAR)

The MAR Maritime Vessels Directory offer detailed static vessel and shipping companies data.

TXT, HTML

LINK

Personnel currently working on board:

[13]

Seafarers and Vacancies databases, BalticShipping

The BalticShipping Seafarers and Vacancies databases provide information about seafarers (ID, name, age, photo, citizenship, salary, etc.) and vacancies (Vessel's name, type, flag; position; contract duration; salary; etc.).

TXT, HTML

LINK

Ancient ships and vessel types:

[20]

Warships of the Ancient World, A.K. Wood, Osprey Publishing

Osprey Publishing’s 'Warships of the Ancient World' provides detailed information about ancient ships, including vessel types.

Paperback book, eBook (ePub, PDF)

LINK

[21]

The Book of Old Ships, H.B.Culver, Dover Publications

Dover Publications’ 'The Book of Old Ships' is a source of information for research in maritime history and evolution, with details about ancient ships.

Paperback book

LINK

[22]

The Encyclopedia of Ships, T. Gibbons et al. (Eds.), Thunder Bay Press

Thunder Bay Press’ 'The Encyclopedia of Ships' provides information for research in maritime history and evolution.

Paperback book

LINK

[23]

The Complete Encyclopedia of Sailing Ships 2000 BC - 2006 AD, J. Batchelor and C. Chant, Book Sales Inc.

Book Sales Inc.’s 'The Complete Encyclopedia of Sailing Ships 2000 BC - 2006 AD' is a source of information for research in maritime history and evolution from 2000 B.C. onwards.

Paperback book

LINK

[24]

Ancient Ships, Wikipedia

Wikipedia provides information for research in maritime history and evolution, with details about ancient ships, including vessel types.

TXT, HTML

LINK

Flags of convenience:

[25]

Flags of convenience, International Transport Workers' Federation

The International Transport Workers' Federation provides a list of flags of convenience which is published every year by its Fair Practices Committee.

TXT, HTML

LINK

Traffic flow

Online vessel tracking services:

[9]

Vessels tracking database, MarineTraffic

MarineTraffic records at least 800 million vessel AIS messages monthly and it provides data for more than 1,000,000 marine assets such as vessels, ports, etc. In addition, it provides satellite AIS coverage.

Multiple formats

LINK

[11]

AIS Coverage Map, VesselFinder

VesselFinder is an online service offering efficient ship monitoring and a detailed voyage history of every ship.

Plain text, HTML and map data

LINK

[12]

AIS Coverage Map, ShipFinder

ShipFinder offers efficient monitoring services, port calls, and a detailed voyage history of every ship.

Plain text, HTML and map data

LINK

[16]

AIS Coverage Map, AISHub

AISHub provides real-time vessel positional data.

Multiple formats

LINK

[17]

AIS Coverage Map, FleetMon

FleetMon is an interactive online service offering detailed vessel movements, comprehensive information on ships, shipping companies, ports, etc.

Multiple formats

LINK

[26]

Lloyd's List Intelligence, Lloyd's List Group

Lloyd's List Intelligence is an interactive online service offering real-time AIS positioning, comprehensive information on ships and shipping companies, etc.

Multiple formats

LINK

Ship routes:

[27]

Ships' Routeing, 2019 Edition, International Maritime Organization (IMO)

Ships' Routeing is a frequent IMO publication that incorporates the most recently adopted routeing rules.

PDF

LINK

[28]

Creating sea routes from the sea of AIS data, Alexei Novikov

A. Novikov offers a comprehensive library of global ship routes.

CSV and map data

LINK

Live piracy and armed robbery map:

[32]

Piracy and Armed Robbery Map, International Maritime Bureau

The International Maritime Bureau offers a live piracy and armed robbery map.

Plain text, HTML and map data

LINK

Piracy and armed robbery activity:

[33]

Live Piracy and Armed Robbery Report, International Maritime Bureau

The International Maritime Bureau provides a narrative of the most recent piracy and armed robbery attacks.

Plain text, HTML and map data

LINK

[34]

Reported Incidents of Piracy and Armed Robbery, International Maritime Organization (IMO)

IMO lists of more than 8,000 reported incidents of piracy and armed robbery on a global scale since 1994.

Plain text, HTML

LINK

Ship strikes:

[35]

Large Whale Ship Strike Database. United States (US) Department of Commerce

The Large Whale Ship Strike Database has on record 292 cases worldwide of ship strikes from 1885 to 2003.

TXT, PDF

LINK

[36]

Historic Vessel Strikes with Whales in Australian Waters. v1, D. Smith et al., Frontiers in Marine Science

The 'Historic Vessel Strikes with Whales in Australian Waters' database records 150 cases of collisions between vessels and whales in Australian waters between 1872 and 2015, as described in the paper by Peel, D., Smith, J. N., and Childerhouse, S.: Vessel Strike of Whales in Australia: The Challenges of Analysis of Historical Incident Data, published in Frontiers in Marine Science, 5, 69, 2018.

CSV, TXT

LINK

Sea

The aquatic environment under the surface of the sea

Bathymetric charts and maps:

[37]

The GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project, The Nippon Foundation

The GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project offers bathymetric contours with global coverage.

ESRI SHP, ASCII, raster, GeoTIFF, NetCDF

LINK

[38]

International Bathymetric Chart of the Southern Ocean, The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR)

The SCAR portal provides a detailed bathymetric chart of the Southern Ocean.

NetCDF, Fledermaus SD, GeoTIFF, XLSX, ESRI

LINK

[41]

Antarctic Digital Database The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR)

The SCAR Antarctic Digital Database consists of geographic information layers including coastline, ice-shelf grounding line, rock outcrop, contours, elevation point data such as survey points and spot heights, and human-presence features such as Research Station locations.

GPKG (GeoPackage), ESRI SHP, KML, GeoTIFF, CSV

LINK

[92]

Bathymetry, European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet)

The EMODnet portal offers detailed bathymetric contours of the European seas.

ASCII CSV, ESRI ASCII, NetCDF (CF), GeoTIFF and Fledermaus SD

LINK

Multibeam deep-water bathymetric data:

[38]

Multibeam Bathymetry, National Centers for Environmental Information, US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

The US NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information provides detailed multibeam bathymetric data with global coverage.

Raw multibeam files

LINK

[40]

International Bathymetric Chart of the Southern Ocean, The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research

The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research provides multibeam deep-water surveys of the Southern Ocean.

Raw multibeam files and ESRI SHP showing the outline of multibeam surveys

LINK

[41]

Bathymetry, European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet)

The EMODnet portal offers detailed bathymetric surveys, such as single and multibeam surveys.

ESRI SHP, ASCII, GeoTIFF, NetCDF, Fledermaus SD

LINK

Petroleum fields, oil and gas drilling installations:

[42]

Fighting over Oil: Introducing a New Dataset, Conflict Management and Peace Science

The US NOAA National Data Buoy Center makes available a detailed global dataset that includes all known offshore (and onshore) oil and gas deposits throughout the world.

ESRI SHP, XLSX

LINK

[57]

Stations Map, US NOAA National Data Buoy Center

The US NOAA National Data Buoy Center provides the geographical location of about 1,500 floating structures over the surface of the sea in specific locations around the globe, including offshore drilling rigs and meteorological stations.

Plain text, KML and map data

LINK

[58]

Oil and Gas (Active Licenses, Boreholes, Offshore Installations), EMODnet Human Activities

The EMODnet Human Activities portal provides the location of offshore petroleum and gas related platforms in the European seas.

Plain text

LINK

Subsea cables and pipelines:

[43]

The Submarine Cable Map, Telegeography

Telegeography makes available a publicly available interactive submarine cable map.

Plain text, HTML and map data

LINK

[44]

Pipelines, EMODnet Human Activities

The EMODnet Human Activities portal provides a dataset of offshore pipelines that covers some parts of Europe.

ESRI SHP, XML

LINK

Underwater cultural heritage sites and maritime archaeological parks:

[45]

Databases - Underwater cultural heritage sites, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

UNESCO provides an online catalogue of underwater cultural heritage sites and maritime archaeological parks with the remains of countless shipwrecks; aircraft wrecks and associated relics; etc.

Multiple formats

LINK

[46]

Wreck databases and lists, Pers sida

Pers sida provides an online catalogue of the remains of countless shipwrecks; aircraft wrecks and associated relics.

Multiple formats

LINK

[51]

Ship Wrecks, EMODnet Human Activities

The EMODnet Human Activities portal provides information about wrecks, underwater sites and objects of historical and archaeological interest in the European seas.

ESRI SHP, XML

LINK

Shipwrecks and aircraft wrecks:

[48]

The Wreck Database

The Wreck Database is the world's largest online wreck database.

Plain text, HTML and map data

LINK

[49]

Lists of Shipwrecks, WikiPedia

The WikiPedia Lists of Shipwrecks provides a dataset of shipwrecks, the remains of which have been located.

TXT, HTML

LINK

[50]

National Monuments Service: Wreck Viewer, Department of Culture of Ireland, Heritage and the Gaeltacht

The Department of Culture of Ireland provides detailed information about 1,200 shipwrecks.

Plain text, CSV and map data

LINK

[51]

Ship Wrecks, EMODnet Human Activities

The EMODnet Human Activities portal provides information about wrecks, underwater sites and objects of historical and archaeological interest in the European seas

ESRI SHP, XML

LINK

Earthquakes:

[52]

Significant Earthquake Database, US NOAA National Geophysical Data Center

The US NOAA National Geophysical Data Center provides a database of sub-marine and continental earthquakes from 2150 B.C. to the present day.

Plain text (in tab-delimited format) and map data.

LINK

[53]

Real Time Seismicity, European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre

The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre provides real-time data on seismic events from all over the globe.

Plain text, HTML and map data

LINK

Volcanic activity:

[55]

The Holocene volcano database of the Global Volcanism Program

The Holocene volcano database lists 1,430 volcanoes that have been active over approximately the past 10,000 years.

XLS, plain text, HTML and map data

LINK

[56]

The Pleistocene volcano database of the Global Volcanism Program

The Pleistocene volcano database lists 1,241 volcanoes thought to have been active throughout the past 2.5 million years.

XLS, plain text, HTML and map data

LINK

The aquatic environment over the surface of the sea

Floating structures and platforms, including offshore drilling rigs and meteorological stations:

[57]

Stations Map, US NOAA National Data Buoy Center

US NOAA National Data Buoy Center portal provides the location of about 1,500 floating structures over the surface of the sea.

KML, plain text and map data.

LINK

[58]

Oil and Gas (Active Licenses, Boreholes, Offshore Installations), EMODnet Human Activities

The EMODnet Human Activities portal provides the location of offshore petroleum and gas related platforms in European seas.

ESRI SHP, XML

LINK

Pontoon bridges:

[59]

List of Pontoon Bridges, Wikipedia

The Wikipedia List of Pontoon Bridges provides a catalogue of some dozens of pontoon bridges located all over the world.

TXT, HTML

LINK

[60]

Pontoon Bridges List, Structurae International Database and Gallery of Structures

The Structurae International Database and Gallery of Structures portal provides information about pontoon bridges located all over the world (geographic coordinates, length, etc.).

TXT, HTML

LINK

Wind farms:

[61]

Wind Farms, EMODnet Human Activities

The EMODnet Human Activities provides the database of offshore wind farms in the European seas.

ESRI SHP, XML

LINK

[62]

US Wind Turbine Database, US Geological Survey, American Wind Energy Association, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (data release USWTDB V2.3)

The USWTDB is a dataset of US onshore and offshore wind turbine locations and characteristics.

ESRI SHP, GeoJSON, CSV, XML

LINK

Sea ice coverage:

[63]

Sea Ice Index, Version 3. Boulder, Colorado US NSIDC National Snow and Ice Data Center

The Sea Ice Index gives an insight into Arctic-wide and Antarctic-wide changes in sea ice from November 1978 to the present day.

CSV, XLSX, TXT, GeoTIF, PNG, ESRI SHP, KMZ

LINK

Ecology, marine flora and fauna

Finfish species distribution:

[64]

Fishbase: A Global Information System on Fishes

FishBase provides a wide range of information on all of the 34,000 finfish species currently known, including taxonomy, biology, trophic ecology, life history and uses, as well as historical data going back 250 years.

TXT, HTML

LINK

Fishing activity in near real-time:

[65]

Global Fishing Watch, Datasets and code

Global Fishing Watch provides ways of tracking and visualizing data about global fishing activity in near real-time.

CSV, Google BigQuery table

LINK

Aquaculture farms:

[66]

Visualizador de Mapas - Aplicación de Visualización de Mapas de la Subsecretaría de Pesca y Acuicultura (in Spanish), Chile Infraestructura de Datos Espaciales Institucional

Chile Infraestructura de Datos Espaciales Institucional provides online maps and information about aquaculture farms in Chile.

XLSX and map data

LINK

[67]

Acuivisor, Gobierno de Espana

Gobierno de Espana makes available online maps and data about aquaculture farms in Spain.

PDF, HTML and map data

LINK

Shellfish and marine finfish aquaculture production sites:

[68]

Shellfish Production, EMODnet Human Activities

The EMODnet Human Activities provides the database on shellfish aquaculture production sites and locations in the EU.

ESRI SHP, XML

LINK

[69]

Finfish Production, EMODnet Human Activities

The EMODnet Human Activities provides the database on marine finfish aquaculture in the EU.

ESRI SHP, XML

LINK

Distribution of marine mammals, chondrichthyes families, dolphins, seals, and turtle nesting sites:

[70]

The Red List of Threatened Species, Spatial Data Download. Version 2019-3, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

IUCN makes available a database that records the global distribution of the marine mammal families and chondrichthyes.

CSV, ESRI SHP

LINK

Trajectories of marine mammals:

[71]

Databases, MEOP Consortium

The MEOP Consortium provides a large database of trajectories of mammals.

NC, NetCDF, TXT, CSV and map data

LINK

Marine protected areas:

[72]

The World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA), Protected Planet, United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

The World Database on Protected Areas is the most comprehensive global database of marine and terrestrial protected areas, and one of the key global biodiversity datasets used by scientists and other relevant authorities to inform planning, policy decisions and management.

CSV, ESRI SHP, ESRI web service, GDB file geodatabase

LINK

[78]

Arctic Protected Areas, The GeoNetwork Catalog

The GeoNetwork Catalog portal provides information about areas in the Arctic under the protection of all of the five Arctic nations.

ESRI SHP, XLSX and map data

LINK

[79]

Τhe Antarctic Specially Protected Areas (ASPAs), Australian Antarctic Data Centre

The Australian Antarctic Data Centre provides a detailed dataset of the protected Antarctic areas.

ESRI SHP, XML

LINK

Marine protected areas networks:

[74]

Natura 2000, EMODnet Human Activities

The EMODnet Human Activities portal provides the dataset of the Natura 2000 network of marine protected areas set up by the European Union.

ESRI SHP, XML

LINK

[75]

The Marine Protected Areas in the Mediterranean (MAPAMED) database, MedPAN Association

The MedPAN Association provides the dataset of the MedPAN network of Marine Protected Areas in the Mediterranean sea.

Map data. An email address is provided for access requests to the raw dataset.

LINK

[76]

The North American Marine Protected Areas Network (NAMPAN)

This NAMPAN network provides the dataset of North American Marine Protected Areas.

HTML

LINK

[78]

Arctic Protected Areas, The GeoNetwork Catalog

The GeoNetwork Catalog provides the dataset of the network of areas in the Arctic under the protection of all of the five Arctic nations.

HTML, ESRI SHP, XLSX and map data

LINK

International agreements on global marine protection:

[77]

History of International Agreements on Global Marine Protection, Marine Conservation Institute

The Marine Conservation Institute provides information about the history of international agreements on global marine protection.

HTML

LINK

Threatened species and their distribution range:

[70]

The Red List of Threatened Species (Spatial Data Download. Version 2019-3), International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

The IUCN Red List contains global assessments for more than 98,500 of the planet’s species, including several varieties and populations of species in the marine environment. Of all the assessed species, 26,197 are classified as vulnerable, critical or endangered.

CSV, ESRI SHP

LINK

Wetlands:

[80]

The List of Wetlands of International Importance, The Convention on Wetlands

The List of Wetlands of International Importance includes 2,341 designated sites from 170 countries and covering a total area of 252,489,973 hectares.

PDF

LINK

[81]

The Global Lakes and Wetlands Database

The Global Lakes and Wetlands Database provides detailed information about lakes, reservoirs and wetlands.

ESRI SHP, ADF, XML and ESRI grid coverage format

LINK

Distribution and biodiversity of seagrasses:

[82]

Global Distribution of Seagrasses (version 6), UN Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre, United Nations Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC)

The UNEP-WCMC portal provides a dataset of the global distribution of seagrasses.

ESRI SHP

LINK

Land

Ports, marinas and anchorages

Ports, vessels live arrivals, schedules and weather information:

[84]

World Port Index, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) - Maritime Security Office

The World Port Index lists about 4,000 ports across the entire globe, describing their characteristics and the known facilities and available services which they provide.

ESRI SHP

LINK

[85]

Area Management - Ports and harbours - Statutory harbour limit boundaries, The Scottish Government

The SpatialData.gov.scot service provides online the statutory limits of harbour authorities around Scotland.

XML, ESRI SHP

LINK

[86]

Wikimapia API, Wikimapia

Wikimapia provides datasets defining port boundaries (polygons) on a global scale.

XML, KML, JSON, JSONP

LINK

[87]

Ports Database, MarineTraffic

MarineTraffic provides a port database with vessels live arrivals and schedules, and weather information.

Plain text, HTML and map data

LINK

[88]

Port Database with arrivals, schedules and weather information, FleetMon

FleetMon provides a port database with vessels live arrivals, schedules, etc.

Plain text, HTML and map data

LINK

Marinas:

[89]

Marinas, The Wanderlust Group, Marinas.com

The Marinas.com service provides a list of hundreds of marinas across a number of countries.

Plain text, HTML and map data

LINK

[90]

List of marinas, Wikipedia

Wikipedia provides a list of hundreds of marinas across a number of countries.

TXT, HTML

LINK

Anchorages:

[91]

Anchorages Datasets and Code, Global Fishing Watch

The Global Fishing Watch web portal offers an anchorages database relying on the identification of locations where vessels congregate.

CSV

LINK

Geographical names (place names):

[93]

Τhe Geonames 1000 Database, Global Fishing Watch

Τhe Geonames 1000 Database is a version of the GeoNames Database.

CSV

LINK

[94]

The GeoNames Geographical Database

The GeoNames Database contains over 25,000,000 geographical names.

TXT

LINK

Distances

Maritime distances between countries:

[96]

The CERDI-sea distance database

The CERDI-sea distance database provides the maritime distances between countries.

DTA, XLSX

LINK

Maritime distances between ports:

[97]

The Distances between Ports (Pub 151), National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, The US Government

The US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency makes available a dataset providing the maritime distances between ports.

PDF

LINK

[98]

Route Calculator, SeaRoutes

SeaRoutes makes available a dataset providing the maritime distances between ports.

Plain text, HTML and map data

LINK

Islands

Significant islands:

[103]

Island Directory, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Regional Seas Directories and Bibliographies No. 35

The Island Directory is an alphabetical index that provides basic environmental and geographic information about 2,000 islands which it describes as the most significant ones on the planet.

TXT, HTML

LINK

Small islands that are 2 square kilometres or under in size, coral reefs and atolls:

[104]

Free vector and raster map data at 1:10m, 1:50m, and 1:110m scales, Natural Earth

Natural Earth provides a dataset for all the small islands around the globe that are 2 square kilometres or under in size, and a dataset for the coral reefs and atolls.

ESRI SHP, TIF raster files

LINK

Coastlines and Lighthouses

Coastlines:

[92]

Global Self-consistent, Hierarchical, High-resolution Geography Database (GSHHG), NOAA

The GSHHS shoreline database provides a high-resolution version of the coastlines around the world.

ESRI SHP, netCDF

LINK

[104]

Free vector and raster map data at 1:10m, 1:50m, and 1:110m scales, Natural Earth

Natural Earth provides a dataset of the coastlines around the world.

ESRI SHP

LINK

[105]

Coastline for analysis, European Environment Agency

The European Environment Agency provides a high-resolution version of the coastline of Europe.

ESRI SHP

LINK

[106]

US Coastline National Shapefile (TIGER/Line Shapefile), Department of Commerce, US Census Bureau

The US Census Bureau provides a high-resolution version of the coastline of the USA.

ESRI SHP

LINK

[107]

Antarctic Digital Database, British Antarctic Survey Geodata Portal

The Antarctic Digital Database provides a high-resolution version of the coastline of Antarctica and of the sub-Antarctic from the South Pole to 40°S.

GPKG (GeoPackage), KLM, ESRI SHP

LINK

Lighthouses:

[99]

The Lighthouse Explorer Database, Lighthouse Digest Magazine

The Lighthouse Explorer Database provides information about 8,259 lighthouses from all over the world.

Plain text, HTML and map data

LINK

[100]

World List of Lights, Amateur Radio Lighthouse Society

The ARLHS World List of Lights provides information about more than 15,000 lighthouses across 233 countries

Plain text, HTML and map data

LINK

[101]

The Lighthouse Directory

The Lighthouse Directory provides information about more than 22,000 of the world's lighthouses.

Plain text, HTML and map data (street view and satellite view)

LINK

[102]

Lights, MarineTraffic

MarineTraffic provides information about more than 13,500 lighthouses.

Plain text, HTML and map data

LINK

Maps and imagery

Nautical charts and maps

Exclusive economic zones of all countries:

[108]

Shapefiles, MarineRegions

The MarineRegions service provides a dataset of the exclusive economic zone of every country around the world.

GPKG (GeoPackage), ESRI SHP, KML

LINK

Political borders of almost all countries:

[104]

Free vector and raster map data at 1:10m, 1:50m, and 1:110m scales, Natural Earth

Natural Earth provides a dataset of the political borders of every country on earth.

ESRI SHP

LINK

[109]

World Borders Dataset, Thematic Mapping

The World Borders Dataset provides the political borders of every country on earth.

ESRI SHP

LINK

[110]

World Political Boundaries – Coarse, G.McGarva, University of Edinburgh

G.McGarva and the University of Edinburgh provide a dataset of the political borders of every country on earth (coarse version).

ESRI SHP

LINK

[111]

World Political Boundaries – Detailed, G.McGarva, University of Edinburgh

G.McGarva and the University of Edinburgh provide a dataset of the political borders of every country on earth (detailed version).

ESRI SHP

LINK

Administrative areas of all countries:

[112]

Database of Global Administrative Areas (Maps and Data)

The Database of Global Administrative Areas provides the administrative areas of every country in the world, at all levels of sub-division.

GPKG (GeoPackage), ESRI SHP

LINK

Nautical e-charts:

[2]

OpenSeaMap: the free nautical chart

OpenSeaMap provides electronic nautical charts for sailing the seas.

Vector electronic navigational charts

LINK

Nautical paper charts:

[114]

Nautical Charts, US Office of Coast Survey

The US Office of Coast Survey provides a collection of more than 1,000 nautical charts for marine navigation in the oceans and coastal waters of the US and in the Great Lakes.

Vector electronic navigational charts, raster navigational charts, images of nautical charts and maps

LINK

Maps of the globe (day and night):

[104]

Free vector and raster map data at 1:10m, 1:50m, and 1:110m scales, Natural Earth

The Natural Earth portal features raster maps of the globe on the 1:10 and 1:50 million scales.

TIF raster files

LINK

[115]

Earth at Night Flat Maps, The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Earth Observatory

The NASA Earth Observatory provides several 500 metres resolution global and by-region (colour and grayscale) maps of the earth at night.

JPEG, GeoTIFF

LINK

Images

Satellite images:

[116]

Copernicus Open Access Hub, European Space Agency (ESA)

The ESA's Copernicus Open Access Hub brings the latest free satellite images from all active Sentinels: radar imagery from Sentinel-1, optical multispectral Sentinel-2 imagery, etc.

VHR (very high resolution) imagery, video imagery (30s / 60s of 4K videos), luminous (night-time) imagery, etc.

LINK

[117]

Earth Observatory (EO) Browser, Sinergise

The EO Browser stores medium and low-resolution satellite images, including the complete archives of all the Sentinel satellite missions, Landsat 5-7 and 8, MODIS, Envisat Meris, Proba-V, and GIBS satellite imagery, including an imagery mosaic of the globe derived from Sentinel-2, Landsat 8, MODIS satellites.

PNG, JPEG; JP2, TIFF, etc.

LINK

[118]

Earth Data, NASA

Earthdata Search provides a plethora of NASA's earth science imagery data.

GeoTIFF, GIF, JPEG, PNG, HDF, etc.

LINK

[119]

Land Viewer, EOS Data Analytics, Inc

Land Viewer makes available miscellaneous up-to-date and free global satellite images from Landsat 7-8, Sentinel-1 and 2, CBERS-4, MODIS, aerial data from NAIP, and Landsat 4-5 historical satellite imagery.

JPEG, KMZ, GeoTIFF, etc.

LINK

[120]

Remote Pixel, MapBox

Remote Pixel gives free access and allows the downloading of Landsat 8 images and spectral bands.

TIF, JPEG, etc.

LINK

Images from non-satellite sources:

[118]

Earth Data, NASA

Earthdata Search provides a plethora of images from non-satellite sources.

GeoTIFF, GIF, JPEG, PNG, HDF, etc.

LINK

[121]

Free stock photos and videos shared by talented creators, Pexels

Pexels provides collections of maritime-related high quality photographs, videos, vectors, drawings, illustrations and music files which are free to use, copy or adapt for both commercial and non-commercial purposes.

JPEG imagery and MP4 videos

LINK

[122]

Free images and royalty-free stock, Pixabay

Pixabay provides a sizeable collection of multi-media data related to subjects including boats/ships, shipping, the oceans, the seas, waves, water, sailing, ports, fishing, coral reefs, etc.

JPEG / PNG / SVG (Vector graphic) imagery and MP4 videos

LINK

[123]

Free, high-resolution images, Burst

Burst provides a sizeable collection of multi-media data related to subjects including boats/ships, shipping, the oceans, the seas, waves, water, sailing, ports, fishing, coral reefs, etc.

JPEG imagery

LINK

Climate and sea conservancy

Weather conditions

Weather conditions and forecasting:

[124]

OpenWeatherMap

OpenWeatherMap provides current weather data, 5-days forecast with a 3-hour time step; weather maps including precipitation, clouds, pressure, temperature, wind, wave height and direction, etc.

JSON, XML, HTML

LINK

[125]

Visual Crossing: Weather Forecast and Weather History Data

Visual Crossing provides 15-days forecast and weather history reports since 1960.

JSON, CSV

LINK

[126]

Weather Unlocked

Weather Unlocked provides 7-day forecast and previous 7-days history, including information about temperature, type and amount of precipitation, cloud cover, wind speed, gust speed, wind direction, humidity, etc.

JSON, JSONP, XML

LINK

[127]

Weatherbit.io: The High Performance Weather API

Weatherbit.io gives current conditions and provides 16-day forecasts, severe weather alerts

JSON, CSV

LINK

[128]

WeatherStack: Real-Time and Historical World Weather Data API

WeatherStack gives current weather conditions.

JSON

LINK

[129]

Planet OS Datahub: Earth data at your fingertips

The Planet OS Datahub provides a collection of open weather, climate and environmental data on a global scale.

JSON, NetCDF, CSV

LINK

Tropical cyclones:

[130]

The International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship (IBTrACS), Unifying tropical cyclone best track data

The IBTrACS database provides historical data about global tropical cyclones spanning the last 150 years.

NetCDF, CSV, ESRI SHP

LINK

Tornados:

[131]

Storm Prediction Center Severe Weather GIS, US NOAA National Weather Service

The Storm Prediction Center of the US NOAA's National Weather Service provides a database hosting tornado tracks, along with information about hail and damaging convective winds in the US, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands.

ESRI SHP

LINK

[133]

European Severe Weather Database, European Severe Storms Laboratory

The European Severe Weather Database provides information on dust, sand or steam devils, tornado sightings, etc., from all over Europe and around the Mediterranean.

Plain text, HTML and map data

LINK

Severe storms:

[133]

European Severe Weather Database

The European Severe Weather Database provides information on large hail, heavy rain and snowfall, severe wind gusts, damaging lightning strikes, avalanches, etc., from all over Europe and around the Mediterranean.

Plain text, HTML and map data

LINK

The climate system

Climate in areas covered by the oceans:

[134]

The World Ocean Database, US NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information

The World Ocean Database is made up of a collection of quality-controlled ocean profile data that include historical in-situ surface and subsurface oceanographic measurements of temperature, salinity, oxygen, phosphate, nitrate, silicate, chlorophyll, alkalinity, pH, plankton, etc.

NetCDF, OSD, MBT, DBT, CTD, XBT, PFL, APB, SUR, CSV

LINK

[135]

Copernicus Marine Service, European Commission

The European Commission's Copernicus Marine Service provides a collection of global ocean climate and forecast data, including top-to-bottom measurements and forecasts for temperature, salinity, currents, sea level, mixed layer depth, ice parameters, etc.

NetCDF-3, NetCDF-4

LINK

Climate in areas in the proximity of the seas:

[137]

WorldClim version 2.1

WorldClim offers a dataset of spatially interpolated monthly weather and climate data for the global oceanic climate, and more generally for all the land areas around the globe.

TIF

LINK

The impact of human activity on the health of the ocean

Ship fuel consumption (greenhouse gas emissions):

[140]

Data collection system for fuel oil consumption of ships, International Maritime Organization (IMO)

The IMO annual emissions summary report on the basis of a data collection process that requires the owners of large ships (of more than 5,000 gross tonnage) engaged in international shipping to report the fuel consumption of their ships to the IMO's Flag Member States where the ships are registered.

HTML

LINK

Accidents involving vessels:

[142]

Marine Casualties and Incidents, International Maritime Organization (IMO)

The IMO Marine Casualties and Incidents Reports service provides a comprehensive ship accidents dataset from the year 1990 onward.

TXT, HTML

LINK

[143]

Lists of shipwrecks by year, Wikipedia

Wikipedia offers a list of accidents involving a ship sinking, foundering, grounding, or being otherwise lost (since 1747).

TXT, HTML

LINK

Governmental investigation bodies of maritime accidents:

[144]

Marine Accident and Casualty Investigation Boards, R. Kuehmayer, Austrian Marine Equipment Manufacturers

R. Kuehmayer and the Austrian Marine Equipment Manufacturers provide a catalogue of addresses of authorities around the world which publish lists of maritime accidents and investigation reports about specific accidents which have occurred in waters under their responsibility.

PDF

LINK

[145]

EU Accident Investigation Bodies, European Maritime Safety Agency

The European Maritime Safety Agency provides the online and postal addresses of all of the EU national accident investigation authorities.

TXT, HTML

LINK

Oil spills:

[146]

List of oil spills, Wikipedia

Wikipedia provides a database listing more than 200 confirmed oil spills caused by ships, mainly tankers, by combined carriers and barges, since the 1900's.

TXT, HTML

LINK

[147]

Oil Spill Database

The Oil Spill Database provides for the 50 worst oil spill disasters up to 2010 the geographical locations of the areas affected.

TXT, HTML

LINK

Estimation of the plastic particles floating in the oceans:

[148]

Plastic pollution in the world's oceans, M.Eriksen et al., PLOS ONE

M.Eriksen et al. provide an estimation of the total number of plastic particles floating in the world's oceans and of their weight.

TXT, HTML, PDF

LINK

Trajectories of the oceans' currents and of the floating oceanic debris:

[151]

Global Drifter Database, GDP Drifter Data, US NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Metrological Laboratory

The Global Drifter Database records over time the moving positions of floating scientific buoys that the US NOAA disseminated in the oceans over the period 1979-2013 from different locations on earth.

CSV, MAT (Matlab), PDF, ASCII, GeoJSON, JSON, ncCF, KML, PNG, etc.

LINK

Hot spots of oceanic pollution

[153]

Plastic debris in the open ocean, A. Cozar et al., PNAS

A. Cozar et al. provide a record of samples of floating oceanic debris which have been collected in order to identify hot spots of surface-level pollution.

CSV, TXT

LINK

[154]

Floating plastics, a wide-reaching problem, Marine Geoscience Data System (MGDS)

The Sea Education Association Plastics Project 2010 Expedition provides the geographic coordinates of locations in the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre and in the eastern Pacific Ocean in which the concentration of surface marine debris was measured.
(LINK -> Open Ocean -> Pollution --> Western North Atlantic Ocean surface plastic debris (Sea Education Association))

Plain text

LINK

[155]

The Deep-sea Debris Database, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology

The Deep-sea Debris Database provides videos and photos of large pieces of marine debris sunk into the deep-sea. Information about the locations and the depth at which the debris was found is also available.

Plain text, HTML and map data

LINK

Quality of the sea water:

[156]

Bathing Water Profiles Registry, Greek Ministry of Environment

The Greek Ministry of Environment provides the geographic locations and detailed yearly assessments of bathing water quality for over 1,500 organized bathing water sites in Greece.

Plain text, HTML and map data

LINK

[157]

Waterbase - Water Quality icm, European Environmental Agency

The European Environmental Agency provides a detailed dataset which contains time series of nutrients, organic matter, hazardous substances and other chemicals in rivers, lakes, groundwater, transitional, coastal and marine waters.

CSV, SQLite

LINK

[157]

Waterbase - Biology, European Environmental Agency

The European Environmental Agency provides a dataset which contains time series of biological quality elements (BQEs) such as phytobenthos and macroinvertebrates in rivers, lakes, transitional and coastal waters.

CSV, SQLite

LINK