The harbour
The Index rates Walvis Bay a small natural harbour on the coast. It lists container berths, ramps for roll-on, roll-off ships, dry bulk berths, liquid bulk berths, an oil terminal, general cargo berths and a dry dock there. It takes ships up to 335.6 m long, through a channel at least 14 m deep. A vessel traffic service watches the approaches.
Harbours within 10 km
- Walvis Bay1 km from the centreSmall harbour
What the live map can see
In 24 hours of AIS recorded Oct 12 – 19, the map heard only 6 ships within 10 km of Walvis Bay: reception here is patchy, so most ships won’t show.
Good to know
- 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