Smartphones at sea

The Bureau of Meteorology provides a quick way to see what’s incoming: view live radar, micro-forecasts, and receive push notifications for hazards such as marine wind, severe thunderstorms, heavy surf and cyclones. 

For offshore boating and wind-driven water sports, Seabreeze offers wind and swell graphs across Australia, and shows what the wind’s doing at a glance - its strength, direction, and predicted changes across the day.

Excellent for tides, UV, rainfall and radar, with hyperlocal forecasts across 17,000 Aussie locations. Use it as a baseline check before you home in on the exact reef or bay you’re headed to, and pair it with Seabreeze for wind and swell forecasts. 

Use it for coastal and longer passages, boat tracking, route-based weather and to compare forecast models from ECMWF, GFS, UKMO, ICON, and more. 

Built on C-MAP charts, this app connects your smartphone to late-model Lowrance units (HDS, Elite) to plan routes, manage waypoints, download offline charts, check weather, and sync data to and from your MFD.

Lets you duplicate and remotely control any wireless-connected B&G, Lowrance or Simrad MFD screen on your smartphone. It’s useful for crew, or when you’re at the bow on the trolling motor.

Get it for barometer readings, moon phase and wind strength on the water, and trip analysis when the fishing is done. Over time, Fish Ranger’s ‘observed vs result’ ethos helps you spot the patterns that matter for your target species.

Crowd-sourced mapping lets you record sonar, upload logs and get high-resolution contours – handy for impoundments and inshore structure hunting. If you fish tournaments, you can pre-fish on the app, sync in seconds, and you’re hunting edges and drains rather than stabbing in the dark.

Check bag and size limits, seasonal closures, marine park zones and more. Download the relevant app for your state or territory: QLD Fishing 2.0, FishSmart NSW, SA Fishing, Recfishwest, NT Fishing & Boating Mate, Vic Fishing or Fishing Tas. 

Any phone can dial 000 or 112 for Police, Fire or Ambulance, but with the Emergency+ app downloaded to your smartphone you can relay your precise location to responders. For Apple phone users, Emergency SOS instantly calls emergency services via satellite, sending your location and alerting registered contacts (practice before you need it, using demo mode).

When you log on with your local marine rescue service, someone’s keeping watch for your return to port. In NSW, log your trip details and contacts via the Marine Rescue NSW app. WA is rolling out state-wide log-on via the free DECKEE app, which has automated logbooks, local knowledge heat maps, safety alerts and weather. It also notifies your emergency contacts and reminds you if you forget to log off.

Crossing a coastal bar is one of the riskiest moves you can make, but checking live webcam lets you gauge wave sets, lines and traffic before committing. Check your state government’s recreational boating or transport website for webcam locations.