On March 2, 2026, the Strait of Hormuz was officially closed (unofficially, since February 28). You noticed its immediate effect when you went to your trusted gas station. Almost half a year later, there have been glimpses of openness and a measure of the Government of Spain to mitigate the rise in fuel that is gradually withdrawing.
Meanwhile, ships are still stationed around that narrow pass and some states are venturing into alternative routes, such as the bypass through the desert of the Arab Emirates. But sooner or later, the Strait of Hormuz will open. And then it will also be a problem.
Boats stranded in your area. Currently it is estimated that there are more than 1,500 large merchant vessels idle in the Gulf region. It is normal for a ship of this type to spend between one and three days stopped in a port, but as 24 international researchers have analyzedthese boats have been there 40 times longer, with their hulls motionless as if they were another object thrown into the sea.
And the longer a boat is still, the more fauna adheres: algae, mussels, larvae… the growth of the biofouling it shoots from 10 days of immobility. And that is a danger for the ecosystems through which those ships will later pass: the International Maritime Organization explains that prolonged berthing significantly increases the risk of bioinvasion, which is why it recommends immediate actions when a vessel is inactive for between 18 and 30 days.
Why it is important. Because at the moment there are more than a thousand ships exceeding that threshold and with a network of routes that travel the entire planet annually. When these vessels resume their journeys, they will carry fuel, goods and stowaways in the form of non-native organisms to ports and seas around the world.
He study points out the first ports in danger: Jeddah, Bombay, Colombo and Singapore to the east and Alexandria, Piraeus, Algeciras and Rotterdam to the west. That its environmental conditions are similar to the place of origin is paradoxically a risk: it makes it easier for these invasive species to establish themselves successfully. Its devastating potential is enormous: displacement of native fauna, as reservoirs of pathogens and parasites capable of causing epidemics. In short, we are facing an enormous ecological and economic risk.
Context. This is not the first time that geopolitical blockades or wars have led to the spread of invasive species. A previous historical example: the invasion of the Australasian barnacle Austrominius modestus in Western Europe in the Second World War as a result of New Zealand ships detained in English ports. On a much smaller scale, the six-day temporary closure of the Suez Canal in 2021 also carried biosecurity implications.
How to avoid disaster. Among the measures proposals by the team There is the underwater cleaning of hulls before setting sail, anticipating and preventing routes to notify destination ports, monitoring in high-risk ports through environmental DNA testing and coordination to establish alerts between authorities and agencies.
Paint ugly. The good news is that this environmental tragedy has not yet occurred, but rather this report is a well-founded prediction made without real sampling, but with the precedents that exist. Unfortunately, underwater cleanup that minimizes the risk at the source is unlikely, taking into account the limited capacity to carry it out and other needs, such as the resumption of shipping movement, transportation logistics or the urgency of evacuating crews.
Cover | Goran_tek-es and freepik
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