Thursday 12 March 2026 · moved the Index · plateau
Strait of Hormuz crisis
Multiple cargo ships, tankers, and bulk carriers were hit by projectiles in the Strait of Hormuz and Gulf region during March–April 2026 amid escalating Middle East tensions. At least six vessels were attacked, with some damaged, crews stranded, and shipping routes disrupted. A Russian shadow fleet tanker caught fire after a suspected drone attack near Malta. The US seized an Iranian cargo ship, and seafarers faced abandonment risks and food rationing.
Peak 332.3 on Thursday 12 March 2026. The shaded band is the incident window.
Where the attention came from
Over the whole window this ran Public curiosity-led; on the peak day itself it read Mixed. When the two differ, the fast signals (social, news) spiked and faded while the slow ones (search, research) carried the tail. Mixed means no single signal dominated — the attention was spread across search, research, news and social.
Bar = share of the extra attention over the whole window; the tick marks the share on the peak day alone, where the two differ.
How unusual it was
The #3 incident since 2020 by peak. Its peak day ranks #15 among all days — 9 days of Ever Given blocks the Suez Canal and 5 days of Baltimore bridge collapse ran higher.
How far it spread
Spilled over — 3 of 6 vessel-type groups drew clearly more readers than usual.
Gas carriers is a small readership base — normally about 185 readers a day, so a few hundred extra makes a large multiple.
Bulk carriers is a small readership base — normally about 180 readers a day, so a few hundred extra makes a large multiple.
Readers here means readers of the Wikipedia article on each vessel type — the same source as the Research signal, not news coverage — so an incident can dominate the news without moving this panel. Bars start at 1× — normal readership for that vessel type, the weeks before the incident. Grey = no clear lift. "Over time" shows each group's daily readers through the window; "All 12 articles" breaks the six groups back into their members.
How it was framed the frame glossary →
Lead frame: geopolitical pawn. Trade press was 1% of in-scope coverage — the story had left the trade press and gone mainstream. (Historical coverage is scored on headlines only.)
Acting, or acted upon
In 65% of coverage shipping was the thing acted upon rather than the actor.
How the coverage sounded
Coverage ran 73% negative overall; 31% strongly so.
Each article is scored on a five-step scale from strongly negative to strongly positive; the bar is the share of coverage at each step.
Maritime Attention Index, incident: Strait of Hormuz crisis, peak 332.3 on 12 March 2026. maritimeattentionindex.com/incidents/2026-strait-of-hormuz-crisis/