The Mediterranean Sea is one of the world’s busiest bodies of water; from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Levant coast, it covers approximately 2,500 miles and occupies an area of nearly 970,000 square miles.

While the region offers safe transit to commercial traffic and entry to the Middle East and beyond via the Suez Canal, regional instability in certain areas such as Libya and Syria have the potential to spill over into adjacent waters posing a possible threat to commercial traffic.

A recent report by NATO provides a general assessment on the threat posed to commercial shipping while transiting the Mediterranean in open waters.

The NATO report and MARAD advisory