How many vessels are in the ocean?

Question

Ive been trying to find an approx. answer to this that is reliable but can't seem to find an answer. Help!

Answer 1

This is a very good question...

One I am sure some "going green activists" would like to have an acurate answer to...

At any rate, you sure stirred up my curiosity.

The best I could come up with however, was following links to Merchant Marine and International Trade, and Maritime Laws regarding "Internationl Ships Registry"...

From what I could put together, it appears slightly more than 40,000 Commercial Merchant Ships are holding (paying for) International Registry... In addition to this, 1,200,000 individual "recreational class" vessels are registered, and another 900 Lloyds class (these mostly private owned megayachts.  Course, these figures do not include any military vessels...

So... assuming about 98% of the registered individual "recreational" class is either individuals with bigger egos then boats, or just "wishful thinkers" that are not actually voyaging more then a few miles from their homes...  I would say that you have about 41 to 45,000 vessels cruising around on one or more of the seven seas at any given point in time...  The US Navy claims to have a total of 280 vessels in its fleet, and 245 "active"... (we had over 6,000 at the end of WWII).  The British "Royal Navy" claims 90 active... (they had over 900 active at the end of WWII).   Russia however, is a whole different story... their Naval force is the only one in the world that continues to increase...  it consists mostly of nuclear submarines..   Currently, Russia claims 50 active nuclear submarines, but in 1998 they had 170 and they have never stopped building them.  So, supposedly the 120 are "in storage".  Yet, we know of 5 under construction today...   Russia (remember "Hunt for Red October) loves their nuclear subs - their current fleet of them is estimated to be near 200, and they have an additional Navy fleet of 117 surface ships.

So, even counting NATO's known military vessels, with all the above, 45,000 ocean going vessels is a pretty darn close estimate... as close, or as acurate I believe, as you will get without doing an awful lot of homework.

Happy & Safe Boating!

PS.   Sleep easy tonight... knowing that we are currently threatening Russia to get out and leave Georgia alone - while they have as many Nuclear Submarines as we have vessels in our entire Navy.

Answer 2

"In the ocean" connotes that they are sunk. The answer would be in the hundreds of thousands.

"On the ocean" would be the proper way to ask about vessels plying the waters. The answer is again in the hundreds of thousands.

Commercial vessels around the coast and most inland ones now use an AIS system that identifies the user and specific details to other users of the system such as course, speed, closes point of approach (CPA), time of CPA, as well as vessel details. The range is limited to about 30 miles or so as far as the transceiver can send and receive.

The Navy in conjunction with tools maintained by Raython Corporation can track vessels of interest pretty much around the world.

There are commercial clearing houses the track vessels for company's and provide up to the minute satellite weather and communications for those companies.

Hope that helped

Answer 3

at any given time? could be hundreds may only be a couple. depending on weather conditions and what they're out there for it varies. there are always cruise ships, dive teams, the coast guard, navy etc. i dont really think its possible to get an exact number because most companies, agencies and recreational boats dont have that info readily available condsidering there isnt a system i know of that would require you to register your boat for being on the ocean..honestly i dont think theres really any answer for your question, only estimates

Answer 4

If you take under concideration the amount of Countries with Vessals, the amount of Vesals from all the Services of all the countries, and Add all the Personal Pleasure boat,s you come up with the same answer is me, Every One of Them

Answer 5

check this site :

http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/shiploc...

these are commercial ships with transponders

then add in many 1000's of smaller & private vessels without transponders ....