Esenler port and ships, live

Esenler lies on the Turkish Straits, one of the ten chokepoints where the map counts the ships going through.

The harbour

The Index rates Istanbul a large harbour on a canal or lake. Its entrance channel is at least 12.5 m deep.

In 24 hours of AIS recorded Oct 12 – 19, the map heard only 11 ships within 10 km of Istanbul: reception here is patchy, so most ships won’t show.

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