FormerLab

Open source Baltic Sea shadow fleet tracker. 1200+ vessels, live AIS, cable proximity alerts. No cloud, no subscription, runs locally

14
0
100% credibility
Found Mar 21, 2026 at 14 stars -- GitGems finds repos before they trend. Get early access to the next one.
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AI Analysis
Python
AI Summary

Local open-source tool that monitors over 1200 shadow fleet vessels in the Baltic Sea using public live ship position data to plot maps, flag undersea cable proximity, detect loitering, and identify Russia-West transshipment patterns.

How It Works

1
🔍 Discover the tracker

You come across a free tool from Former Lab that watches sneaky 'shadow fleet' ships in the Baltic Sea to spot risks like cable tampering.

2
📥 Bring it home

Download the files to your computer folder and get ready to run it on your own machine—no internet service needed.

3
🛳️ Sign up for ship positions

Visit a free ship tracking website, create an account, and copy your personal passcode for live position updates.

4
🔑 Share your passcode

Tell the tracker your passcode so it can pull in real-time locations of over 1200 watchlisted vessels.

5
▶️ Hit launch

Run the easy starter button—it checks everything, fires up, and starts building your private map.

6
🗺️ Watch the map light up

Open your browser to see a dark map burst with orange ship markers, glowing trails, green undersea cables, and instant red flags for nearby dangers.

7
📊 Explore your dashboard

Browse logs, zoom into ship stories, review loitering spots, shady port visits, and export your findings anytime.

Keep watch safely

Now you have your own live sentinel spotting shadow fleet tricks, cable threats, and sanction dodges—all running privately on your computer.

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Star Growth

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AI-Generated Review

What is shadow-fleet-tracker-light?

This Python app tracks 1200+ Baltic Sea shadow fleet vessels using live AIS data from a free API key, plotting positions and trails on a self-updating Folium map served via FastAPI dashboard. It flags cable proximity alerts within 10km, loitering patterns like Baltic Sea circles, and Russia-West transshipment—all stored in local SQLite dbs with GPX exports and route replays. Runs entirely offline after setup, no cloud or subscription needed.

Why is it gaining traction?

Zero-cloud local execution on old hardware stands out versus paid maritime trackers, with pre-loaded GUR watchlist and one-command start scripts for instant Baltic AIS monitoring. User-facing hooks include per-vessel pages with sanctions badges, AIS blackout detection, and CSV exports for fleet analysis. Niche focus on Baltic anomalies like cable risks pulls in OSINT devs seeking sovereign tools.

Who should use this?

OSINT analysts probing Baltic Sea shadow fleet for cable sabotage or transshipment evasion, maritime security teams at Baltic RCC watching live AIS alerts, or journalists tracking vessels near resorts and rally routes. Suited for devs building github baltic racing or anomaly dashboards without vendor costs.

Verdict

Strong docs and MIT license make it a quick win for Baltic fleet monitoring, but 14 stars and 1.0% credibility score reflect early stage—lacks tests, expect tweaks for heavy use. Grab it if you're in the niche; otherwise, watch for maturity.

(198 words)

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