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Show HN: Baltic shadow fleet tracker – live AIS, cable proximity alerts

2026-03-20 | original
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Why This Matters

The Baltic shadow fleet tracker provides real-time monitoring of vessels in the Baltic Sea, enhancing transparency and security by tracking potential military or sanctioned ships, especially in sensitive areas like undersea cables. Its open-source, privacy-focused design empowers users and organizations to independently monitor maritime activity without relying on cloud services, supporting broader efforts for maritime security and sovereignty. This tool exemplifies how accessible, open-source technology can improve situational awareness in geopolitically sensitive regions.

Key Takeaways

Baltic Sea shadow fleet monitoring via live AIS data. Watches 1200+ vessels from the Ukrainian GUR War&Sanctions catalogue against the AISStream WebSocket feed, plots positions on a self-updating map, flags proximity to undersea cables, and detects Russia↔West transshipment patterns.

Free, open source, runs locally. No cloud, no subscription beyond a free AISStream API key.

Part of the Former Lab sovereign intelligence toolchain.

Support Former Lab

Shadow Fleet Tracker Light is built and maintained by the Former Lab team — sovereign computing, building open, privacy-first tools on old hardware with no VC backing.

If this tool is useful to you, consider supporting on Patreon. A free tier is available, with a 7-day trial on paid tiers. Always support Ukraine!

patreon.com/FormerLab

Supporters get early access to new tools, development updates, and behind-the-scenes posts on how projects like this are built.

Quick start

git clone https://github.com/FormerLab/shadow-fleet-tracker-light.git cd shadow-fleet-tracker-light pip install -r requirements.txt export AISSTREAM_API_KEY=your_key_here # free at aisstream.io python shadow_tracker.py & uvicorn webserver:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000

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