The crisis surrounding the Strait of Hormuz is exposing a widening gap between the rules governing global maritime trade and the technology now being used to undermine them.
The Strait of Hormuz and modern maritime coercion
The Strait of Hormuz and modern maritime coercion
By Katharine Sorensen | May 25, 2026
Reading time: 8 min
On the night of March 11, 2026, a Vietnam-flagged liquified gas carrier called the NV Aquamarine entered the Strait of Hormuz at approximately 21:30 GMT. After loitering in a strange triangular pattern near the strait's entrance, just sixty minutes later its tracking signal placed it southeast of Basra, on the border between Iran and Iraq. To cover the distance of roughly 467 miles (~750 kilometres) that separated Basra from the strait’s entrance in only an hour, the vessel would have had to travel at approximately the speed of a commercial aircraft.
The vessel had not, of course, moved at any such speed. It had simply lied about where it was.
NV Aquamarine GPS spoofing route. Credit: Pole Star Global.
Speaking to The Beiruter, Saleem Khan, Chief Data and Analytics Officer at maritime intelligence firm Pole Star Global, described the vessel’s behavior as a “tell-tale sign of spoofing,” in which ships deliberately falsify GPS location data to conceal their actual movements. As these types of vessels typically steam at 10 to 15 knots, he explained, the claimed movement was “physically impossible.”
The case of the NV Aquamarine, although particularly dramatic, is not an isolated incident. Since the outbreak of the U.S.-Israel-Iran war linked to Operation Epic Fury, the Strait of Hormuz has become the center of a sophisticated campaign of maritime disruption, with intelligence firms documenting incidents involving GPS spoofing, disabled tracking systems, and suspicious vessel movements across the strait.
According to Pole Star Global's Maritime Incident Monitor, 77 conflict-related events were identified across the region between Feb. 28 and May 22, including direct strikes, vessel seizures, suspicious activity, and electronic interference linked to the conflict. Those incidents set 17 vessels ablaze, sank one ship, and killed at least 12 crew members. As seen in the monitor's map, dense clusters of activity now surround the narrow entrance to the strait itself, while blinking indicators track events recorded within the previous two weeks.
Maritime incidents across the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz. Credit: Pole Star Global.
The disruption has already had major implications for global shipping patterns. Further data shared with The Beiruter shows vessel tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz collapsing from approximately 1,822 arrivals in January 2026 and 1,716 in February, to just 31 in March, 92 in April, and 35 through mid-May.