If you’ve ever wanted to watch the various crews who man the ships that rule the waves on “Deadliest Catch” pilot their vessels from port to port in real-time, we have good news for you. Any viewer of the show can track their favorite ship by using marinetraffic.com. Once the website loads up, simply type in the name of the boat you’re searching for — like Sig Hansen’s The Northwestern –  and you can keep an eye on each trawler as they make their appointed rounds. The website will tell the viewer where they are, and even how fast they’re going. You can also use vesselfinder.com to further keep track of the ships.

Naturally, the boats are generally only active during the king-crab-and-filming-filled Alaskan winter months, so those summer lulls will just lead you to stare at a multicolored arrow pointing to a parked commercial fishing vessel. Ergo, following your favorite captain from the Pacific Northwest to the Bering Sea is generally a late fall to early spring activity. While it might be a fun tool for fans of the series to play with as they watch their favorite captains make a killing in the king crab marketplace, this information has been made public for a very important reason that has nothing to do with celebrity.

Websites like Marine Traffic obviously exist for a reason that has nothing to do with the fame of certain commercial fishing boats. These outposts are intended to increase maritime safety and decrease accidents and danger on the high seas; by using them, the various boats can keep track of one another. That helps in stormy situations and when conditions become abruptly dangerous. Anyone who’s watched “Deadliest Catch” can confirm that it’s better to be safe than sorry when you’re handling heavy crabbing pots on a tilting, waterlogged deck. 

Both websites use AIS — or Automated Identification System tracking — to provide updated information on the ships in question. It’s a radar system that fully identifies the ships in question via digital positional awareness and Very High Frequency (VHF). It’s an incredibly useful tool that can be used by fans to track their favorite crews as they perform their tough jobs (on “Deadliest Catch” or otherwise) or watch seals migrate from one area to the other.