Ships took advantage of an opening in the Strait of Hormuz. But it may be closing | CNN Business

The Strait of Hormuz has seen more traffic in the last week than it has in the past three months. But that has slowed down Friday as a critical evacuation plan is put on hold. Seventy-three vessels transited the critical waterway on Wednesday, the highest number since shortly after the war with Iran began in late February, according to MarineTraffic. That’s more than double the traffic from Tuesday. The spike in traffic comes after the United States lifted sanctions on Iranian oil earlier this week, part of the ceasefire agreement between the two countries. The United Nations and the International Maritime Organization, or IMO, also launched a humanitarian effort to get 11,000 stranded seafarers and 500 vessels out of the strait. “What we’re seeing are the ships that were sitting in the Gulf for this elongated period of time starting to move out with a focus on humanitarian aid to get the seafarers out and then a couple of chosen tankers when sanctions were lifted,” said Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, who spent half a decade working for a major shipping line the Middle East. “So this is not just a full-fledged green flag, everybody start runni