In many coastal areas, high numbers of recreationists may exceed ecological capacities. Careful monitoring of visitor flows is a first prerequisite for coastal area management. We show how AIS ship data can be translated into interpretable information on recreational boats and investigate whether AIS can provide monitoring information when compared to nature conservation policy targets. In the Wadden Sea UNESCO World Heritage Site we used nearly 9 million data points to create spatiotemporal patterns for the 2018 recreation season. We combined this with shipping lanes and bathymetry data and compared the resulting patterns with nature protection regulations. Our results show that most of the traffic is concentrated around tidal channels. We also show that exceeding speed limits is not predominant behaviour, but the effect of speeding on birds and seals might be more severe than the data suggests. We mapped favourite tidal flat moor activities, and observed where this occurs in Marine Protected Areas. We conclude that AIS analysis can provide valuable recreational boating monitoring, relevant to sensitive coastal area management in the entire Dutch Wadden Sea for the full recreational season. Broader integration of AIS with radar data and ecological data can add to the power of using AIS.

在许多沿海地区，大量休闲者可能会超过生态能力。仔细监控游客流量是沿海地区管理的首要前提。我们将展示如何将AIS船舶数据转换为休闲船上的可解释信息，并研究与自然保护政策目标相比AIS是否可以提供监测信息。在瓦登海联合国教科文组织世界遗产名录中，我们使用了将近900万个数据点来创建2018年休闲季节的时空模式。我们将其与航道和测深数据相结合，并将结果模式与自然保护法规进行了比较。我们的结果表明，大部分流量都集中在潮汐通道周围。我们还表明，超出速度限制不是主要行为，但是超速对鸟类和海豹的影响可能比数据所暗示的更为严重。我们绘制了最喜欢的潮滩系泊活动的地图，并观察了在海洋保护区发生这种情况的地方。我们得出的结论是，AIS分析可以提供有价值的休闲划船监控，与整个休闲季节整个荷兰瓦登海中敏感的沿海地区管理有关。AIS与雷达数据和生态数据的更广泛集成可以增加使用AIS的能力。