Pump boat 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.
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.[2]
Incidents
2GO Travel's ferry St. Gregory The Great nearly capsized on 15 June 2013, when it struck rocks under the water near the Siete Picados Islands.[3]
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 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.[4]
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.[5][6][7]
