Carson port and ships, live

The Index rates Los Angeles a large coastal harbour behind breakwaters. It lists container berths, ramps for roll-on, roll-off ships, dry bulk berths, liquid bulk berths, general cargo berths and yards for major repairs there. It takes ships up to 400 m long, through a channel at least 16.1 m deep. A vessel traffic service watches the approaches. Los Angeles, 10 km away, is one of the major ports the map marks.

• Los Angeles10 km from the centreLarge harbour · counted on the page for Long Beach

In 24 hours of AIS recorded Oct 12 – 19, the map heard 257 different ships within 10 km of Los Angeles, one of the best-covered harbours on the map.

• NGA’s World Port Index rates a harbour by its area, facilities and wharf space when it was last surveyed, not by its traffic, so a busy terminal can be rated small. Where it doesn’t know about a facility it says so, and only what it marks as there is listed here.
• AIS is heard by receivers on shore, so coverage follows where they are: ships far out at sea, or off coasts without one, don’t show. Warships and some others switch it off, and a ship’s type and destination are typed in by its crew.
• Harbours from NGA’s World Port Index (Pub. 150), downloaded on Oct 19, 2026. The major ports and chokepoints are the map’s own reference list.

How the layers work, where their data comes from and what they can’t tell you: Live ship tracker, Shipping chokepoints