Where are they now? Tracking boats and planes on the Internet.

Do you know someone going off on a cruise, flying to LA, or out in the ocean fishing? If so, you may want to know about these two websites, flightaware.com and marinetraffic.com.

Flightaware.com gives you information on specific airports, airlines, and flights. You can view all flights coming to and leaving from a specific airport, track a specific flight, or enter the departure and destination cities to view all flights between those cities. The following map shows real-time information about flights to and from Portland.

Marinetraffic.com is a map of ships around the world that are equipped with Automatic Identification System (AIS) transponders. These transponders provide real-time information on the location and path of vessels, some docked at marinas, and other on waterways or the open sea. The ships are represented by small icons, and when a mouse hovers over the icon, information about the ship appears, including the name of the ship, its speed, and sometimes a photo of the ship. You can search for specific ships, types of ships, or ports.

Few ships and boats actually participate in this program. At this exact moment, the Port of Newport shows three ships in port, three departures, four arrivals, and one expected arrival. Still, it’s kind of fun to see what is available, and if you know someone on one of the AIS equipped vessels, you can see where they are!