What you can do
You may freely browse, search, link to, and quote from any page on PortWatch. You may include short factual excerpts (a paragraph or two) in your own writing â research papers, journalism, internal company memos, classroom materials â provided you attribute PortWatch as the source and link back to the originating page. You may print individual pages for personal reference, and you may save copies for archival research. You may use the directory’s URL structure as a stable anchor for citations.
What you cannot do without permission
You may not bulk-scrape the directory, mirror it, republish substantial portions of its content as your own, repackage it for sale, or use it as a feed into another commercial product without prior written agreement. You may not use the data on PortWatch as the basis for navigational decisions, collision avoidance, vessel traffic management, customs declarations, sanctions enforcement, or commercial chartering — see the accuracy disclaimer below. You may not represent yourself as endorsed by, affiliated with, or sponsored by PortWatch without an explicit written agreement.
Accuracy disclaimer
PortWatch aggregates data from public sources of varying quality and refresh cadence. The directory is offered as is, with no warranty as to accuracy, completeness, timeliness, or fitness for any particular purpose. Vessel positions are last-known reports and may be hours or days out of date. Port identifiers and metadata may contain errors carried over from upstream datasets. Do not use PortWatch for navigation, safety-of-life decisions, or any operational maritime purpose. If a value on PortWatch matters to a real-world decision, verify it against an authoritative source (the relevant national hydrographic office, port authority, your shipping line’s vessel agent, your certified AIS provider, or the IMO and Equasis registries) before acting on it.
Limitation of liability
To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, PortWatch and its maintainers disclaim all liability for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, or punitive damages arising from your use of, or inability to use, the directory. This includes — but is not limited to — losses arising from reliance on inaccurate vessel positions, missing port records, broken external links, ad network behaviour, and downtime.
Third-party content
PortWatch links to and quotes from third-party reference sources including IMO, UNECE, Equasis, UNCTAD, NavCen, Wikidata and others. Each such source is governed by its own terms and licensing, and the relationship between you and any third-party source is between you and that source. PortWatch does not endorse or verify the third-party content beyond what is stated in the site’s methodology and data-sources pages.
Contact and corrections
To request a correction, report an error, or discuss a permission, see the contact page. Corrections submitted with a citation to a specific upstream source (Wikidata QID, UN/LOCODE entry, IMO record) are most likely to be applied.