The Iloilo Strait is a

strait A strait is a water body connecting two seas or water basins. The surface water is, for the most part, at the same elevation on both sides and flows through the strait in both directions, even though the topography generally constricts the ...

in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

that separates the islands of

Panay Panay is the sixth-largest and fourth-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total land area of and a total population of 4,542,926, as of 2020 census. Panay comprises 4.4 percent of the entire population of the country. The City of Il ...

and

Guimaras Guimaras (), officially the Province of Guimaras (; ), is an island province in the Philippines located in the Western Visayas region. The capital is Jordan, while the largest local government unit is the municipality of Buenavista. The provin ...

in the

Visayas The Visayas ( ), or the Visayan Islands (Bisayan languages, Visayan: ''Kabisay-an'', ; Filipino language, Filipino: ''Kabisayaan'' ), are one of the three Island groups of the Philippines, principal geographical divisions of the Philippines, a ...

, and connects

Panay Gulf Panay Gulf is an extension of the Sulu Sea, reaching between the islands of Panay and Negros in the Philippines. The gulf contains the island-province of Guimaras and extends into the Iloilo Strait, between Panay and Guimaras, and into Guimara ...

with the

Guimaras Strait Guimaras Strait is a strait in the Western Visayas region of the Philippines, connecting the Visayan Sea with Panay Gulf and the Sulu Sea beyond. To the north and west are Panay and Guimaras Islands, while Negros Island is to the south and ...

. It is the location of the Port of Iloilo, the third-busiest of the ports in the Philippines in number of ships.

Iloilo City Iloilo City, officially the City of Iloilo (; ; ), is a Cities of the Philippines#Legal classification, highly urbanized city in the Western Visayas Regions of the Philippines, region of the Philippines, located on the southeastern coast of th ...

on Panay is the major city located on the strait with Buenavista and

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

, both on Guimaras, immediately across the strait from the city. The Iloilo River empties into the strait.

Pump boat A pump boat (usually Language change, variation as ''pambot'' in local languages) is an outrigger canoe (') native to Southeast Asia powered by a small gasoline or diesel engine. Smaller pump boats might be powered by the sort of small single-cyl ...

ferries cross every few minutes from Iloilo City to Guimaras and vice versa. Ships doing business with the Port of Iloilo often moor in the strait.

History

2GO Cargo Ship in Iloilo Strait with pumpboat

The Port of Iloilo was opened for international trade in 1855 and the coming of British Vice-consul Nicholas Loney, a year later, led to the fast development of the sugar industry in the region.

Incidents

2GO Travel Go, GO, G.O., or Go! may refer to: Arts and entertainment Games and sport * Go (game), a board game for two players * ''Travel Go'' (formerly ''Go – The International Travel Game''), a game based on world travel * Go, the starting position l ...

's ferry ''St. Gregory The Great'' nearly capsized on 15 June 2013, when it struck rocks under the water near the Siete Picados Islands.

Iloilo Strait Tragedy

In midday of August 3, 2019, two motor boats "Chi-chi" (43 passengers on board) & "Keziah 2" (with only 4 crews survived) bounded to

Jordan, Guimaras Jordan (), officially the Municipality of Jordan (; ), is a municipality of the Philippines, municipality and capital of the Philippine Province, province of Guimaras, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 39,566 peop ...

were capsized due to strong southwest monsoon winds enhanced by Tropical Depression "Hanna" (Int'l name Lekima). Several hours after an incident another motorboat from Buenavista, Guimaras named "Jenny Vince" (40 passengers on board) were also capsized due to strong winds. 31 passengers were perished in tragedy including teachers.

2020 Iloilo Oil Spill Incident

The incident happened in Friday afternoon (July 3, 2020) where one of the two power barges of National Power Corporation (NAPOCOR) exploded spilling an estimated 251,000 liters of fuel by Saturday morning. Nobody was injured, but by Sunday morning, about 400 residents were evacuated amid the spreading smoke from the bunker fuel, according to the Iloilo City Risk Reduction Management Office. Some 179,300 liters of bunker fuel were collected from the water's surface on Sunday, according to a report by the Coast Guard station in Iloilo.

References

External links