Around 20,000 sailors 'stuck in Gulf' as LBC visits operations centre tracking shipping traffic through Strait of Hormuz
The vital trading waterway has seen a 92% drop in transits since the war with Iran began, amid blockades and attacks
Welcome to the 999 call centre for the high seas.
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The UK Maritime Trade Operations Centre in Portsmouth is a critical point of contact for commercial vessels navigating turbulent waters.
At its heart stands Head of Operations, Commander Jo Black, surrounded by giant screens displaying maps, charts and trackers.
“It's 24/7, 365 days a year. We are one of the emergency services to support international merchant shipping in the Gulf, the Straits of Hormuz, the Red Sea, and the Western Indian Ocean,” she says. “We'll pick up the phone to any master from any flag, from any country.”
Read More: Iran offers to reopen Strait of Hormuz despite postponing US nuclear talks
The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) was originally set up in Dubai in 2001 to act as a hub for handling distress calls from tankers and container ships in the Middle East. The Royal Navy operation was then moved to Britain in 2014.
Its primary role is to take calls from members of crew, report activity, and coordinate the flow of trusted, politically neutral information to hundreds of freighters to ensure as peaceful passage as possible through millions of square miles of ocean.
The scene in the control room is mostly one of calm. The phones ring intermittently, and officers tap away at keyboards. But in the event of an incident, it’s all hands on deck.
“You're gathering as much information from the affected vessels as possible,” explains Cdr Black.
“You're contacting those vessels that haven't contacted you, and we're trying to contact other vessels in the vicinity to warn them of the danger, but also to ask them if they can verify what's happened.
"We're then sharing that information with the military forces. If there is danger to life or to the vessel itself, we're contacting the rescue coordination centres both regionally but also internationally to see what effort can be brought to assist there."
41 alerts have been put out by UKMTO since March 1st. Of them, 26 have involved a ‘significant event,’ such as an explosion.
“If a vessel's been struck by a missile, that can be absolutely terrifying” for the mariners aboard, Cdr Black tells me. Sometimes, watchkeepers in Portsmouth have to deal with harrowing situations, providing reassurance to distressed sailors under attack.
Cdr Black’s team says threats have evolved rapidly over the years. Piracy was once the main danger. Now, it’s geopolitical instability. Merchant traffic in the Strait of Hormuz is at a near standstill amid a US blockade targeting Iranian ports, as well as reported attacks by Iran on ships in the Strait.
“Previous to March, we'd seen relatively strong traffic, around 130 transits of the Strait of Hormuz a day, equal numbers in and out. Since then, we're now down to less than 10 transits a day,” says Cdr Black. “There are around 20,000 seafarers stuck inside the Gulf at the moment, affected by this.”
A fifth of the world’s oil usually also passes through the Strait, and its effective closure has inflicted a global economic shock, sending energy prices soaring.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer says the impact of this will be felt “for some time,” even if a US-Iran ceasefire is agreed. The British government decided not to directly join American airstrikes against Iran.
However, Cdr Black is confident the UK can play a role through the Maritime Trade Operations Centre, by providing guidance in these volatile circumstances: “it has been a challenge, but we’ve been doing this for a long time, and we have the resilience to be able to switch to whatever threat is prevalent and then respond to that accordingly.”