How to find ships in real time, which tools actually work, and the best spots on shore to watch them pass — from someone who grew up watching them from Bay City.
The Great Lakes fleet is one of the most underappreciated spectacles in the Midwest. Thousand-foot bulk carriers moving iron ore, coal, limestone, and grain through freshwater seas — passing close enough to shore in places like Bay City that you can read the hull markings from your yard. I named my garden after them. Here's everything I know about tracking and watching them.
All commercial vessels on the Great Lakes broadcast AIS (Automatic Identification System) signals. These tools pick them up and plot them on a map:
The most widely used vessel tracking platform. Free tier covers live positions, vessel details, route history, and ETA data. Best overall coverage for the Great Lakes.
marinetraffic.com ↗Clean interface, good mobile app. Shows live positions with vessel photos contributed by spotters worldwide. Solid alternative to MarineTraffic with similar coverage.
vesselfinder.com ↗The insider tool. BoatNerd.com has been covering Great Lakes shipping for decades and their AIS page is purpose-built for lake watchers — includes vessel details specific to the Great Lakes fleet.
boatnerd.com ↗Official site for the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation. Vessel transit data, lock schedules, and seasonal opening/closing information for the Soo Locks and Seaway system.
greatlakes-seaway.com ↗Ships pass through downtown Bay City on their way to and from Saginaw Bay. The Independence Bridge and Veterans Memorial Park give close-up views. This is my home stretch — on a good evening you can watch a thousand-footer clear the Liberty Bridge with feet to spare.
The St. Clair River is one of the busiest inland waterways in the world. Ships transit within yards of shore. Lighthouse Park and the downtown waterfront are ideal. Vessels pass every 30–45 minutes during peak season.
The Soo Locks Boat Tours and the Army Corps of Engineers viewing platform let you watch vessels lock through from Lake Superior to Lake Huron. The most dramatic scale encounter available — thousand-footers fill the lock chamber to within feet.
The Duluth Aerial Lift Bridge is iconic. Ships pass directly under the bridge into the harbor. The Canal Park area has restaurants, a maritime museum, and ship arrival notifications via the Duluth Shipping News app.
The Straits are the chokepoint connecting Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. Fort Michilimackinac State Park and the waterfront in Mackinaw City give good views of vessels transiting the Straits.
The Detroit River carries significant international traffic between Lake Erie and Lake St. Clair. Belle Isle State Park offers panoramic river views. Both US and Canadian-flag vessels transit frequently.
Great Lakes-built vessels — called lakers — are wider and longer than ocean ships because they were purpose-designed for the lakes and don't need to fit through ocean locks. The largest lakers, the thousand-footers, cannot physically leave the Great Lakes. Salties are ocean-going vessels small enough to transit the St. Lawrence Seaway; they visit the lakes from international ports and are identifiable by their deeper draft and different hull profiles.
| Cargo | Primary Route | Season |
|---|---|---|
| Iron ore | Duluth / Two Harbors → Indiana Harbor / Cleveland | Apr – Jan |
| Coal | Various Lake Erie ports → power plants & steel mills | Apr – Jan |
| Limestone | Rogers City / Calcite → Cleveland / Detroit | Apr – Jan |
| Grain | Duluth / Superior → St. Lawrence Seaway ports | Aug – Nov peak |
| Salt | Goderich, Ontario → ports throughout the lakes | Year-round |
The Soo Locks typically open in late March or early April and close in mid-January. Ice conditions on Lake Superior and Lake Michigan drive the exact dates each year. The Coast Guard icebreaker fleet keeps critical channels navigable through most of the winter, allowing a small number of vessels to operate year-round on the lower lakes.
My heirloom seed garden in Bay City sits close enough to the Saginaw River that vessels are visible from the property during the shipping season. The name isn't incidental.
Visit Freighter View Farms ↗Written by Chris Izworski, Bay City MI. Fleet statistics from the Lake Carriers' Association and Army Corps of Engineers. AIS tools are third-party services — coverage and availability may vary. Last updated March 2026.