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  • 2016-01-12 (xsd:date)
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  • No, Cargo Ships Have Not Stopped Traveling in the Atlantic Ocean (en)
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  • On 8 January 2016, the web site Superstation 95 published an article claiming that for the first time in history, there were no cargo ships traveling in the North Atlantic: The claims made in the Superstation 95 article are based solely on the above-displayed map, which was taken from MarineTraffic.com. While this map is real, it is not evidence that all cargo ships have stopped sailing in the North Atlantic Ocean. MarineTraffic.com uses AIS (Automatic Identification System) to create its cargo ship maps. While this system allows MarineTraffic.com to collect cargo ship data from around the world, this system requires ships to be within a limited range of a base station: In the web site's FAQ section, MarineTraffic.com writes that a ship may not be visible on a map for a number of reasons. Mainly, the AIS system only covers coastal areas: An AIS system is not ideal for tracking cargo ships in the middle of the ocean. Luckily, AIS also uses satellite information to track ships. On 12 January 2016, Marine Traffic posted an image to Twitter along with a message stating that there were thousands of cargo ships in-transit in the North Atlantic: Marine Traffic's Tim Soare confirmed that the Superstation 95 article used a terrestrial AIS map, which only has a range of about 15-20 nautical miles, while the map tweeted by Marine Traffic used a combination of terrestrial AIS and satellite AIS data: Superstation95 has generated several fake news stories, including one that posited that the December 2015 San Bernardino mass shooting was because of an argument over pork served at a Christmas party. (en)
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