Introduction

Background

The Indian Ocean ranks as the third largest among the five oceanic basins on Earth, following the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, and surpassing both the Southern Ocean and the Arctic Ocean in size. Four key maritime passages are the Suez Canal (located in Egypt), Bab el Mandeb (between Djibouti and Yemen), the Strait of Hormuz (connecting Iran and Oman), and the Strait of Malacca (situated between Indonesia and Malaysia). In the year 2000, the International Hydrographic Organization established the Southern Ocean as a distinct fifth ocean basin, thereby excluding the segment of the Indian Ocean that lies south of 60 degrees south latitude.