India, July 23 -- Thousands of commercial vessels stranded for months in the Persian Gulf following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz could unintentionally trigger a massive marine invasive species event, according to a new study.

A team of of 24 marine scientists, led by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES), and including the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), published the study titled Closure of the Strait of Hormuz May Trigger a Bioinvasion Super-Spreader Event in the journal Biological Invasions.

According to the scientists, prolonged periods at anchor allow ship hulls to accumulate dense communities of marine organisms, including algae, barnacles, mussels, and other invertebrates, which c...