Jennifer Parker

So you'd be sitting there thinking, I might be attacked at any moment.

You're having shortages of water and food.

It's quite a dire situation for the civilian merchant mariners trapped in the Gulf.

Yeah, I think it would be incredibly difficult.

And this is one of the things, when we report on these kind of incidents around the world, we often forget about the plight of merchant mariners, who are the people who actually make our maritime trade and our international economy work.

I think they likely have shortages of water, likely shortages of food, living under constant fear of bombardment, probably little communications with their family.

We've seen some merchant mariners do interviews, etc.,

But the problem is when you use communications like that, you're very much giving away your position and increasing your ability to be targeted.

So I think they would have limited communications with their family and no clear end in sight as to when they can get out.

So the US haven't been clear about exactly what it entails, but they have said that they have put 15,000 sailors and marines on the task, over 100 sea-based and land-based aircraft, and a number of destroyers, guided missile destroyers, so surface combatants.

We've seen some guided missile destroyers go through the Strait and some are now operating inside the Arabian Gulf or the Persian Gulf, which we haven't seen a lot of that since the conflict began.

And they're encouraging ships to transit out south of what is called the traffic separation scheme.

So in an international strait, you generally have a traffic separation scheme, which is where ships should go in and out.

Think of it as a roadway.

It's not drawn on the water, but think of it as a roadway.

Now, Iran has claimed that they have mined that, and it looks like they probably have with some of the confirmation from the U.S.

in the last 24 hours.

So the U.S.

is saying that ships should exit the Arabian Gulf, hugging the Omanian coast south of that traffic separation scheme.

And we've seen what looks to be a change in the rules of engagement for the US Navy.