There are more than 1,500 commercial ships that have spent months sitting nearly motionless in and around the Persian Gulf after the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. This has created what marine scientists describe as an ecological threat unlike anything previously documented, allowing unusually dense layers of marine organisms to accumulate on their submerged hulls. Researchers say those heavily biofouled ships, rather than the closure itself, now pose an ecological threat once they begin sailing again.
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