This raster layer represents global commercial shipping activity including location and travel routes. Commercial shipping activity can lead to ship strikes of large animals, noise pollution, and a risk of ship groundings or sinkings. See the Lineage section for complete information about data sources and porcesses used to create this layer. This dataset is part of the Global Map of Human Impacts to Marine Ecosystems, a collection of data and analyses related to anthropogenic drivers of change in marine ecosystems.The goal of this research is to estimate and visualize the global impact that humans are having on the oceans' ecosystems.