The Marine Department started to provide the Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) for the port of Hong Kong in 1989. Ships visiting Hong Kong are identified by Vessel Traffic Service Operators (VTSO) in the Vessel Traffic Centre (VTC) with the aid of a Very High Frequency (VHF) Direction Finding system on their first voice contacts and their names tagged with the corresponding targets on the radar surveillance system.

The radar surveillance system is linked with an information system to record movements of visiting vessels in port as well as to support invoicing and compilation of statistics. The movement of vessels are uploaded to the webpage of the department and is accessible by the public.

With the VTS system, Vessel Traffic Service Operators are able to provide traffic information and advice to mariners by VHF communication.

The 3rd generation of the VTS system, with the latest technologies to cater for the operational needs of the next decade, has come into operation since 2016. Fourteen radars are now employed in the system to provide radar surveillance coverage of the Hong Kong navigable waters. The radar system is designed to automatically track a maximum of 10,000 targets at any one time.

In addition, there are 17 Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) system cameras installed at various strategic locations, e.g. areas of heavy traffic, to provide real time visual vessel images. The VTS system is also capable of receiving and displaying information of vessels transmitted by their own Automatic Identification System (AIS).