How busy are the world’s shipping routes, and where are the global chokepoints for commercial shipping?

Today’s visualization compiles 250 million data points, representing the movement of the world’s commercial shipping fleet based on hourly data from 2012.

The interactive map below breaks up the merchant fleet into five ship types: container ships, dry bulk carriers, oil and fuel ships, gas ships, and carriers transporting vehicles.

via Mapped: Global Shipping Routes, Using 250 Million Data Points