Sunday 3 May 2026 · below the Index · spike
Strait of Hormuz shipping crisis and attacks
Multiple maritime incidents in the Strait of Hormuz region during late April and early May 2026, including Iranian seizures of cargo vessels, piracy off Somalia, attacks on merchant ships, and stranded seafarers. Ukraine also targeted Russian shadow fleet tankers. US military intervened to intercept sanctioned vessels and escort merchant ships through the strait.
Peak 210.6 on Sunday 10 May 2026. The shaded band is the incident window.
Where the attention came from
Media-led, both over the window and on the peak day.
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
This was above 98% of all days since 2020, and the highest since Wednesday 22 April 2026.
How far it spread
No vessel type moved — 0 of 6 vessel-type groups drew clearly more readers than usual.
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 63% of coverage shipping was the thing acted upon rather than the actor; 20% of it was strongly negative in tone.
What the coverage said
- Breakfast Wrap: The seafarers stuck in the Strait of Hormuzabc.net.au · 2026-05-06
- Attack on French cargo ship highlights continued risks in Strait of Hormuzstraitstimes.com · 2026-05-07
- Seafarers trapped in limbo as US and Iran clash in Strait of Hormuzaljazeera.com · 2026-05-08
- Shipowners Stay Cautious on Hormuz as Iran Says 'Contact Us'gcaptain.com · 2026-05-06
- CS Anthem chemical tanker becomes second US-flagged vessel to exit Strait of Hormuzal-monitor.com · 2026-05-06
- CS Anthem chemical tanker was second US-flagged vessel to exit Strait of Hormuzwhbl.com · 2026-05-06
Gold rule = a national or international outlet, not a trade title.
- composite index was above 110 in this window but never itself showed genuine elevation (z < 2.0); demoted out of tier A — see README 'Threshold tuning'.
- tier C: only a Wikipedia article, GDELT sub-vocabulary term, or social per-term query fired — not yet confirmed as a real maritime incident (Phase C naming/is_maritime_incident does that).
- coverage scored on title only (no excerpt) — measured ~8pp frame precision cost vs title+excerpt (docs/HANDOVER-incidents.md §2.3)
- coverage filtered to articles matching this incident specifically (1190/1799 kept) — see coverage.filter.terms
Maritime Attention Index, incident: Strait of Hormuz shipping crisis and attacks, peak 210.6 on 10 May 2026. maritimeattentionindex.com/incidents/2026-strait-of-hormuz-shipping-crisis-and-attacks/