Windward identified oil leaking from the Greek-owned tanker Kavomaleas—hit by an Iranian Revolutionary Guard attack and towed into Iranian waters—and from an unidentified AIS-dark tanker, with both slicks drifting toward Larak and Qeshm islands near the Strait of Hormuz. Washington is weighing a major escalation against Iran, potentially as early as Saturday, and Donald Trump proposed using frozen Iranian assets to compensate owners for damaged ships and cargo. Three Thai seafarers filed a lawsuit in Bangkok against Precious Shipping over the March 11 attack on the bulker Mayuree Naree, which left three crew dead. The Houthis claimed attacks on Saudi tankers Encelia and Layla and Tehran has asked them to intensify maritime action if US strikes expand, while IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez called the Red Sea attacks “indefensible”. A Biological Invasions study warns that hull-fouling organisms on hundreds of vessels idled for months could trigger a bioinvasion event when trade resumes.
Context
The slicks appear as tanker traffic in the Strait of Hormuz had already fallen to a single crossing on Thursday, the lowest since May 7 .