The paper aims to implement a specific strategy to target the aerosol due to ship emissions. PM₁₀ is collected south and north of the main shipping route through the Mediterranean. Other than ions and metals the analysis is complemented with measurements of rare earth elements, trajectories from a high resolution regional model and actual observations of ship traffic. The combination of these approaches allows for unambiguous identification of the ship contribution (8–11 % of PM₁₀) in this area.