Definition
A maritime chokepoint, or strategic maritime passage, is a strait or a canal through which a significant part of world trade has to pass because there is no short alternative. Its closure or congestion forces ships to make detours of thousands of miles.
The best known are the Suez Canal, the Panama Canal, the Strait of Hormuz, the Strait of Malacca, Bab el-Mandeb, the Bosphorus and the Strait of Gibraltar. When one fails, because of a war, a drought or an accident, the alternative is usually to sail round a continent, as do the ships that avoid the Red Sea by going via the Cape of Good Hope.
The Strait of Gibraltar links the Atlantic and the Mediterranean and is about fourteen kilometres wide at its narrowest point. Through it pass the routes between Asia and northern Europe that use the Suez Canal, and those linking the Mediterranean with the Americas and West Africa. Traffic through these passages is estimated from the ships’ AIS signals.
The figure · 27 September 2026
Daily transits (7-day average)
133 transits a day
Estimated cargo capacity (7-day average)
3.4 million tonnes a day
Against the 28-day average
-0.2%
Rank by daily transits
6th
Ship traffic through the Strait of Gibraltar
An average of 133 ships a day crossed the Strait of Gibraltar in the week ending 27 September 2026, 4.2% less than in the same week of 2025. That is 0.2% less than the average of the previous 28 days.
The full ranking, the trend and the table are in the indicator Ship traffic through the Strait of Gibraltar. To explore the data in detail, see Maritime Radar · chokepoints.